Mirror
by DoofusPrime
Summary: After stumbling on proof of Shego's true feelings, Kim Possible begins to question her own desires in life and love.  Synthodrones and supervillains threaten the beginning of a new relationship, but will Kim end up being her own worst enemy?
1. Caught Green Handed

**Mirror**, by DoofusPrime_  
_

_Notes: This was originally a one-shot, but I am now expanding it into a longer story. I'm happy for any readers regardless of their preferred pairing (if any), and this story will have a lot going on beyond just romance, but at the same time, it IS Kim/Shego, just FYI. Although this is M rated, it's probably a weak M, but I wanted to err on the side of caution. __Hope you guys like it! _

_Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. This work was not created for profit. No copyright infringement is intended._

* * *

**Caught Green-Handed**

XX

Scented candles. Red rose petals strewn across emerald satin bedsheets. A slow funk song played on the stereo, bass notes pulsing sensually through the air. Princess had done well while she was gone. And finally, Princess herself, ready and waiting. Like fruit ripe for the picking.

After a long day of work, it was time to play.

"C'mere," said Shego as she threw off the rest of her clothing and slipped between the sheets. The room was dimmed except for the light of a few candles scattered here and there, but even in the soft light she could see the whites of Kim's eyes. Those big beautiful eyes, irises colored in vibrant green, although it was too dark to see their color at the moment. Her lover waited for her underneath the covers, and even before Shego reached her she could feel Kim's heat radiating through their little cocoon. Of course, for all she knew, it only seemed hot in bed compared to the excessive air conditioning that was constantly blasting through the rest of the lair.

"How was work?" asked Kim. "Did you steal everything you needed for the Transmogrification Ray?"

Shego frowned. She was a little annoyed at her boss sending her out to steal things when it was the end of the work week, but she had grudgingly carried out his request. Not only that, but the government lab's security was a lot heavier than she had expected. At least now she had come back to an unexpected surprise.

"Let's not talk about work, Kimmie."

"Okay!"

The sound of soft rustling made its way through a break in the music as Shego moved herself under the sheets, slipping her arms around Kim. Soft, yielding skin trembled beneath her touch, and she pulled her lover closer for a kiss. The two of them lay entwined together, lips joined and legs crossed, until Shego finally broke the kiss, smiling as Kim gave a faint gasp of pleasure.

"Tell me I'm beautiful," said Shego.

"You're beautiful."

"Tell me why you love me."

Shego shifted herself in the bed so that she was sitting on top of Kim and looking down at her. Sheets fell away while Kim looked up at her captor with an impudent grin, wriggling a little as she tried to escape from being pinned down. But Shego knew she wasn't really trying to escape. She was happy exactly where she was.

"I love you 'cause you're so bad," said Kim. "I have to be a goody-two-shoes all day long, fighting evil and saving the world, but the only time I can really let my guard down – the only time I can really be the _whole_ Kim Possible - is here with you. You let me be bad!"

"Got that right," said Shego. "Wanna be bad now?"

Kim nodded eagerly. Shego smiled at her enthusiasm, and was about to lean down for another kiss when Kim unexpectedly reared up with her waist, tipping Shego off-balance. The two of them laughed as Shego fell onto the side of the bed, and Kim gave her a particularly naughty look before pulling the covers up over her head and disappearing beneath shifting waves of emerald green fabric. Shego knew that look; Kim wanted her to dive in and find her. She was more than happy to oblige, as Princess had her caught hook, line, and sinker. The two of them twisted and turned in the darkness, and Kim let out a quiet groan as Shego took the bait.

XX

Kim let out a quiet groan as she passed through another cobweb.

"What's up, KP?"

"Spiders again. And this vent's freezing, too. Does Drakken need this much air conditioning?"

"I guess this is the trade-off for sneaking into bases through air vents."

Kim supposed he had a point, although she was surprised that not only had she started complaining about things first, but Ron hadn't even seconded her. Usually he was the first to gripe about an uncomfortable lair break-in. Spiders or not, she pressed on, and before long the two of them reached a grille in the wall that gave them a view of Drakken's control room. A gigantic laser sat menacingly in the middle of the room, pointed in the direction of what Kim assumed was the front door. From the looks of it, trying to break into the lair by ringing the doorbell would have been a lot more uncomfortable than shuffling through a cold air vent filled with cobwebs. Kim wasted no time in kicking out the grille and dropping into the control room, wanting to get the mission over with quickly. Ron joined her, although his fall was much less coordinated. Kim grimaced at the sound of a loud crash behind her.

"You okay, Ron?"

"Yeah. The table broke my fall."

"I heard."

No henchmen were in sight, although Kim wouldn't mind fighting a few just to shake off the gross feeling of spiders and their webs. Probably in her imagination – at least she hoped so. She made her way over to the laser and pulled out the Kimmunicator, giving Wade a call as she looked the device over. She wasn't a technical expert, but Wade had given her a run-through earlier. It did not look like the machine was operational.

"What do you think, Wade?" she asked as she gave him a view of the laser's elongated barrel.

"Yeah, definitely no lens installed yet."

"So how do we disable it?"

"Just pull the blue wire behind the control panel, it should cause a system short. Taking pictures for Global Justice. They should be there soon to dispose of it after you guys take care of Drakken and Shego."

"Cool. You're the best, Wade!"

Kim waited until Wade was finished and then switched off the Kimmunicator, returning it to her cargo pants before giving the laser a look. The thing was much larger than she expected, sitting on a metal platform and towering over the two of them like some kind of comically gargantuan plastic toy. It looked hefty and solid, but five minutes with Ron would probably have the thing blowing a hole in the roof of the lair before Drakken even knew what was going on. She was exaggerating, of course; they wanted to disable the laser gun, but avoiding unnecessary explosions was usually a safe bet, and hopefully Global Justice would be arriving soon now that they had confirmed just what Drakken and Shego were up to. For some reason, Global Justice was always a little slow on the draw.

Kim was about to go for the laser's control panel and look for the blue wire when the sound of clicking boot steps reached her from the other side of the control room.

"Kim Possible! But how!"

Kim rolled her eyes. Always the surprised exclamation. The two of them turned to find Drakken staring at them, mouth agape. He was standing on a small stairway in front of the door to another room from which he had emerged, holding a mug of hot chocolate and a cruller in his hands.

Ron looked over the giant laser device as the three of them stood awkwardly. "How were you going to wheel this thing out of your control room, anyway?" he asked. "It looks bigger than your doorway."

Drakken eyed the laser for a moment.

"Hmm. I didn't think of that."

"Either way," said Kim, "you're not going to be transmogrifying anything anytime soon. I'm not sure what that involves, but it stops now!"

"You wish!" cackled Drakken. "As soon as I defeat the two of you and install the targeting lens it will be fully operational, ready to transmogrify everything in its path!"

"Where's the targeting lens, Drakken?"

"You'll never find it!"

Almost before Drakken had finished speaking, two henchmen come out of the room where he had just emerged, holding a massive lens between them. Kim knew Shego had been stealing things all day, but she had no idea how her nemesis could have even hefted that thing out of the government lab she had stolen it from. The two henchmen stumbled to a halt behind Drakken when they noticed the teen interlopers, almost dropping the lens. Drakken looked back and slapped a hand over his forehead in frustration.

"Found it," said Kim.

"Henchmen, attack! But put down that lens first, and be careful with-"

A loud crash echoed through the control room, amplified by its vaulted ceiling, as the two henchmen dropped the lens between them. It hit the small stairway where they were standing with Drakken and shattered into innumerable fragments, which bounced and scattered down the stairway and onto the control room floor. Kim repressed a laugh as Drakken looked back at his henchmen, fuming with anger.

"Just attack them already!"

The two henchmen gingerly stepped over the broken glass – or whatever the lens had been made from – as they approached Kim and Ron. Several other henchmen had already arrived in the control room, apparently drawn by the sound of voices and the loud crash. Kim readied herself for a fight as she whispered to Ron.

"I got the henchmen. You disable the ray gun like Wade talked about?"

"Ten-four, KP!"

The first henchmen rushed Kim in a group. She dropped one with a well-placed kick, blocking another as he swung with one of the trademark blue electro-sticks that Drakken's henchmen always seemed to use. Ron ducked and weaved past another couple of henchmen as he made his way to the laser. Judging by the sorry state in which she had caught Drakken – she noticed him still munching on his cruller as he watched the fight – maybe she and Ron could wrap things up before Global Justice even arrived.

XX

Bass guitar pounded insistently through the air as the music swelled to a crescendo, and Shego followed along with its climax. Just as she was about to wrap up a wonderful ending to a hard day's work, the lair's alarm bell rang. The music almost succeeded in drowning it out, but it was definitely there. She ignored it and tried to concentrate on the moment, but soon Drakken's voice echoed through her room, clearly audible during a break in the beat.

"Shego! Possible and the buffoon are here! Control room, ASAP!"

Shego groaned at the message. Beneath her, Kim Possible looked up with wide eyes. She was breathing heavily from the exertion of the last forty five minutes or so, her hair splayed out on the pillow like a fiery red halo, chest heaving. She was a sight to see. There was a peculiarly naughty glint in her eye, too. Shego cursed her luck. If she had just been able to enjoy a few more moments – but now she could already feel things drawing back. She got up with an angry grumble and put on her green and black harlequin suit.

"Playtime's over?" asked Kim, her lower lip pouting.

"Sorry Princess. Duty calls."

Shego opened her door and took one last look at her lover, who was now sitting up in the bed. Now that the cande light was supplemented by the light coming from the hallway outside, Shego could easily see the green glint in Kim's eyes. She gave her lover a smirk and felt her tongue reflexively go over her bottom lip. Maybe she'd beat their teen foes this time, and she'd have two Princesses to play with. Just the thought of it was enough to make her legs give a little quiver of pleasure. But right now, it was business time.

The sweet sound of battle reached her ears as Shego turned a few corners and reached the control room. Sure enough, Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable were up to their usual unwelcome do-gooder shenanigans, and judging by a dwindling number of henchmen who still had the breath left in them to fight, the good guys were getting the upper hand. At least Kim was getting the upper hand; at a glance, Shego could see that Ron was up to his usual strategy of running around like a chicken with his head cut off. Which was surprisingly effective, she had to admit. She'd learned through experience that the boy was harder to catch than a greased pig.

"Shego!" yelled Kim when she saw her opponent.

Shego cracked her knuckles. It was a little strange to feel a surge of anger she now felt due to her fun time with the other Kim being interrupted by this Kim. Almost surreal, in fact; but she embraced the feeling. Nothing wrong with a little anger during a fight, after all.

The two of them charged each other and met in a flurry of blows. Punches followed punches, kicks followed kicks, as they danced a violent dance that they had both memorized ages ago. Shego had to admit that her workout in the bedroom a few minutes ago was not doing her any favors; she felt Kim pressing her advantage and had to take a few steps back as she fended off the teen's energetic blows.

One particularly well-placed kick caught Shego right in the chest, sending her flying back across the ground and bowling over a henchman who hadn't gotten out of the way in time. She got up with a snarl and let a burst of flaming energy rise from her hands as her teen foe circled her. "This is a little disappointing," taunted Kim. "Here I thought I was going to get a challenge, but you're totally off your game tonight, Shego!"

"I'm just getting warmed up, Kimmie."

Shego threw a blast of green plasma at Kim, who dodged it easily.

"Big talk," her teen nemesis said, "but you're gonna have to do better than-"

Kim's taunt cut off abruptly.

Shego was about to take the opportunity to rush her foe and give her a vicious slash, but she noticed all the other henchmen had stopped fighting as well. Drakken stood stock still, farther away from the action, where he had been overseeing his losing battle. Even Ron - who had somehow managed to open a control panel on the Transmogrification Ray and wedge himself bodily into its convoluted piping - was frozen like a deer caught in headlights, staring out from his awkward position. Everyone was looking at something behind her. Shego turned around.

It was Kim Possible. The other Kim Possible, anyway.

And she was stark naked.

"_What the hell?_" screamed Kim Possible. The one Shego had been fighting, anyway.

Shego stammered for a moment, trying to think of a way to extricate herself from her unanticipated situation, but she quickly realized that it was out in the open now. There was no going back. She could have sworn she had closed the bedroom door behind her. Apparently, she was mistaken.

"You left right in the middle of our love-making," said naked Kim, grabbing Shego forcefully and pulling her in for a kiss. Shego didn't even have time to gasp before Kim's lips were on her, hands grasping insistently over her body, demanding the attention that had been cut off with Drakken's emergency call. Shego almost forgot that she was standing in the middle of a crowded control room for a moment as she returned her lover's kiss, burning with passion. She brought herself to her senses and pulled back after a moment. This was getting worse by the second.

"Rrrgh!" she muttered to herself. "Bortel said you wouldn't do stuff like this, I swear..."

"_Bortel?_" shouted clothed Kim. "Cyrus Bortel? What the – what – why – how did-"

Kim finished her thoughts with a series of incoherent sputters as she took in the scene that had just played out before her. Shego held the other Kim back for a moment as she thought of the best way to explain things. She decided there was really no option now but to tell the truth.

"Um, Princess? Meet my Princess."

"Your what? What is that, some kind of robot?"

"Sort of. She's a synthodrone."

"_What?_"

Shego and Kim turned in surprise at the sound of another outburst. This time it was Drakken's turn to shout out indignantly. "I certainly didn't make a synthodrone like that!" he said. "And I think I would have noticed if a syntho-Possible was stalking around my lair!"

"Yeah, sorry Doctor D. I guess I got some ideas after that whole Eric thing. I stole your synthodrone technology and gave it to Cyrus Bortel so he could work on a little private project by my request. And, well - here she is."

Shego motioned to the still-nude Kim synthodrone, who waved giddily at everyone in the room. The real Kim Possible looked like she was about to explode in a fine red mist as her synthodrone copy looked at her with wide eyes and tugged on Shego's harlequin suit. "Shego," she said, "look at her! She looks just like me!"

"Yes. Yes she does."

"You made a clone of Kim Possible?" asked Ron. "That is sick and wrong!"

"She's not a clone," snapped Shego, a little defensively. "She's a synthodrone."

"Same diff!"

Ron's cheekiness began to raise her ire. Having a Kim synthodrone might be her guilty pleasure, but it was nothing like a clone. She hated clones. "Kimmie's a synthodrone," she insisted, "she doesn't have sentience."

Drakken raised an indignant finger. "Excuse me! I believe Eric had sentience. I won't stand for you stealing my technology and then insulting its quality, Shego!"

"Cyrus made the freaking thing, okay? He's not as good as you are, but obviously if I asked _you_ to make me a Kim synthodrone that would have been five kinds of awkward. She's able to understand a bunch of commands and make some responses, and she behaves realistically, but she doesn't think much."

"Ooho, sounds like somebody's rationalizing due to deep-seated insecurities about her hypocrisy and inability to deal with hidden desires," said Ron, still wedged awkwardly in the innards of the Transmogrification Ray. "Besides, who are you to draw a line in the sand in terms of what constitutes sentience?"

Shego and Kim both raised an eyebrow at Ron's question. Drakken also stopped and scratched his temple, deep in thought, and even several of the henchmen seemed to be taken off guard.

"What?" asked Ron. "I can't ask a good question once in a while? I watched a show about artificial intelligence last week, sheesh!"

The Kim synthodrone giggled at the comment. The real Kim looked at her artificial counterpart with a grimace of displeasure. "Can you put some freaking clothes on her?" she asked.

"Uh, right. Kim, go put some clothes on."

"Yes, Shego!"

Shego laughed nervously as the Kim synthodrone rushed back down the hallway to get an outfit from her room, running with a decided bounce in her step. Everyone in the control room watched her go, and one unfortunate henchman near the real Kim Possible let out a faint whistle, only to get a solid kick to the stomach that knocked the breath out of him. Shego winced as the henchman doubled over. The remaining henchmen took a few steps back and tried to avert their eyes from the naked Kim synthodrone as she bounced away.

"She wasn't supposed to come out of the room," said Shego, not sure why she was even trying to explain herself at this point. "Bortel told me that she'd basically stay still and not do much unless I directed her to – uh – to do things."

"_Things?_" asked Kim, her voice rising to dog-whistle pitch.

"Haha, yeah. Things. Okay, look, this isn't exactly the way I planned on breaking this to you, but you're pretty freaking hot, Kimmie. You might be a huge pain in my ass sometimes, but what can I say, I totally get worked up when we're fighting together. Come on, tell me you don't feel the same thing sometimes?"

"What? No way!"

"You're not kidding anybody, Princess. I see the way you get that little smile when we're about to start beating each other up! You like it and you know it."

"That's just the rush of the fight! I'm an adrenaline junkie, okay?"

"She is," agreed Ron.

Shego shook her head. There was no way Kim was pulling one over on her.

"Maybe, but that's not all. You're lying to yourself."

Kim narrowed her eyes, although after seeing her naked double randomly appear in the control room, she still seemed to be a little shell shocked. Ron began to wiggle fitfully in the innards of the Transmogrification Ray as he tried to free himself, while the other henchmen stood awkwardly, looking like they were still enjoying a few choice mental images they had just gotten. Drakken looked around the room and threw up his tiny hands in exasperation.

"The creepy naked Kim clone is gone! Why is everyone still standing around? Shego, henchmen - destroy Kim Possible and that buffoon already!"

Although Shego bristled at Drakken's use of the word 'clone', she snarled at Kim Possible and leaped forward, swinging arcs of flaming plasma at her foe as Kim dodged the fresh assault. The two of them began to trade blows again, several henchmen approaching hesitantly as if they were considering whether or not to interrupt the fight. Once again, however, their fight broke off abruptly when a thundering sound echoed through the room.

A series of electronic fizzes and screeches followed the booming sound, and a shower of sparks burst forth from the open control panel where Ron had been wedged. Ron himself fell awkwardly out of the Transmogrification Ray's inner tubing, rolling on the floor for a moment to put out a small fire that had broken out on his shoulder. He stood up with a triumphant grin and held his fist into the air, which clenched a bouquet of multi-colored wiring ripped from the inside of the weapon.

"_Nooo!_" screamed Drakken. "Did you pull the red wire?"

Ron pointed to a wire in the center of the bundle, its red plastic terminating in frayed copper.

"_Especially_ the red wire!"

"Ron, you were supposed to pull the _blue_ wire!"

Ron inspected the handful of wiring poking from his hand.

"I did pull the blue one. Did Wade say only the blue one?"

Everyone in the control room took a few steps back as another burst of sparks shot out of the Transmogrification Ray, this time followed by an ominous groaning sound.

"Everyone," said Drakken.

The rest of the room turned to him, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"_RUN!_"

Henchmen began to scatter as they tried to get away from the destabilizing Transmogrification Ray. Shego watched as Kim Possible whipped out her grappling gun and shot a hook through the air towards an open air vent in the wall. Probably where they had broken in in the first place, thought Shego. Hero-types always had a certain predilection for the air vents for some reason. She even remembered crawling through a few of them during her time with Team Go. Kim and Ron were about to disappear into the vent when Shego shouted over the sounds of massive Transmogrification Ray technical failure going on nearby.

"Next time I'm going to take you down, Kimmie! Also, you know you want me!"

"Whatever!"

A bright light was beginning to pulse in the barrel of the Transmogrification Ray, building up in intensity, and Shego guessed that probably meant it was about time to leave. She didn't know why Drakken always had to make his inventions so explosive. She motioned for Drakken to follow her, intending to go down a side passage in the direction of the small hangar where they kept the hovercraft, when she ran smack into Kim Possible. The synthodrone version.

"There you are!" she said. "We gotta go."

"But Shego, I just got dressed for-"

Shego reached behind Kim's neck and pressed a button which shut her down. At least _that_ part of Bortel's technology worked as advertised. She slung the Kim synthodrone over her shoulder and ran down the passage with Drakken as they escaped from the control room with the rest of their henchmen.

Once again, Kim Possible had destroyed their plans, and this time she had discovered Shego's dirty little secret as well. Shego had never really had a solid idea of how she was going to tell Kim how she really felt, but letting her stumble upon a glorified love-drone made in her image was probably not the best way to do it. It wasn't like Shego knew exactly how she felt herself, anyway. Kim was easily the most frustrating person she had ever met. And yet sometimes there was nothing she enjoyed more than that frustration. Shego sighed; she definitely had issues.

A low, rumbling sound burst forth from the control room, suggesting that the Transmogrification Ray had finally blown up and was taking the room with it; Shego glanced back in the direction they had come and saw flames licking at the end of the hallway. She quickened her pace, and soon she and Drakken reached the hovercraft in the hangar and leaped inside. The hangar doors opened, and Drakken's henchmen were left to fend for themselves, streaming out into the lair's rocky surroundings and finding cover while Shego and Drakken lifted off.

"Those meddling teens!" said Drakken through gritted teeth.

It was a sentiment Shego had heard many times before. She watched behind the hovercraft as an increasingly powerful cavalcade of blasts issued from the lair, sending smoke and fire into the sky. Another lair gone. But it wasn't really a big deal, as much as her boss liked to gripe. Drakken had a way of making money appear out of thin air. The man always got what he wanted, except when it came to world domination itself. That seemed to be forever out of his reach.

Shego wondered if she would ever get what _she_ really wanted, or if it was out of her reach too. She ignored Drakken's awkward glances at her. He was probably staring at the Kim synthodrone anyway, which was propped beside her in her cramped seat. The wind blew through the open cockpit, sending red hair splashing against Shego's face. She wished she could have told Kim how she really felt in a different way, a better way. A way that could make her see the truth about the two of them, make her stop denying the obvious. But Princess was out of her grasp. Her substitute Princess would have to do for now.

XX

Although her helmet was keeping it from getting too wild, Kim felt the wind blowing her hair back and forth behind her as she looked over the side of the plane. Cyrus Bortel's lab was approaching; Bernice had been kind enough to pick her and Ron up from the remnants of Drakken and Shego's lair earlier. They had already dropped Ron off at his house, since he was feeling a little squicked out from their last mission. Kim didn't blame him. And she didn't really need any backup for Cyrus Bortel, anyway. Kim double checked her parachute gear as Bortel's mountainside lab approached.

"Thanks for the ride, Berenice!"

"No problem, Kim! It's the least I could do after you saved my artist's colony from that dam break the other year!"

"Hmm. Didn't you already pay me back for that with a ride?"

Berenice thought for a moment before shouting back from her seat in the cockpit. "You might be right! I guess you owe me another favor now, don't ya?"

"Count on it," laughed Kim before she leaped into the blue.

It only took a few moments for Kim to sail down towards a small open courtyard on a ledge hacked into the side of the mountain. She landed and unstrapped her parachute, approaching the large set of metal doors in front of her; although the lab was near the base of the mountain and accessible by road, it still had a distinctive lair-ish quality about it. Kim figured it was only a matter of time before Bortel decided that self-interested amorality was too bland for his tastes and jumped the rest of the way into the supervillain's camp. Especially if he had built something like _that_ for Shego. The fact that he had built anything for Shego was concerning, actually. Usually he just built highly dangerous devices and made no attempt to keep them secure, but this seemed like a step up for him. _Wait_, thought Kim – _if it's an evil step, is it actually a step down?_ Either way, she decided it was a bad sign.

"Bortel!" she said as she strode through the door. There he was, just ahead of her. Kim did a quick check to the left and right as she wondered if any henchmen might be hanging around – maybe Bortel had already gone full evil – but the scientist seemed to be alone. He looked up from a laboratory table where he had been fiddling with some obscure piece of technology.

"Ah, Kim Possible!" he said. "Such a pleasure to see you. What brings you to my laboratory?"

"Um, let's see - probably the gorchy synthodrone I found in Drakken and Shego's lair that looked exactly like me?"

"Ah, yes. That."

Cyrus Bortel laughed nervously and stepped away from his lab table as Kim drew closer.

"Wanna tell me what the deal is, Bortel?"

"There is not much to say, really. The charming green lady gave me that fascinating synthodrone technology, along with some pictures and voice samples of you, and some behavioral information. Then she made a very convincing argument that I should make her a Kim Possible synthodrone. Who was I to argue?"

Kim softened a little at the story. Judging by the way Bortel had said 'convincing argument', she began to wonder if he didn't have much choice in the matter. It was hard to wrap her mind around the idea that Shego had created what amounted to a love-drone in her image. Was her foe really that obsessed with her? Their fighting was very passionate, it was true, but Kim figured there was always something passionate about fighting a good foe. And Shego definitely gave her a run for her money compared to most of her opponents. But apparently Shego saw it as more than that. Was it just a physical interest on her part, or something more?

Kim couldn't help remembering what she had seen in the control room of Drakken's lab. Shego definitely had a physical interest, at least. There was no way to rationalize that synthodrone as being a complicated punching bag, even if it _hadn't_ walked into the room naked. Which was humiliating enough in itself, although Ron had been polite enough to cover his eyes. And the way the synthodrone had kissed Shego, Kim thought. The way Shego had kissed her – it – back. There was no doubt about it; the sight had caught Kim off guard. The way she had watched herself as if in a mirror, running her hands over that green skin...

Something in an open door behind Cyrus Bortel caught her attention.

"Um, what's in there?"

"What, where? There? Nothing to see in there, no."

Bortel tried to place himself in between Kim and the open door, but she pushed him aside gently but firmly as she strode through. A single glance was enough to tell her that her initial suspicions had been right. Bortel might have been forced to build a Kim synthodrone for Shego, but that was clearly not the last time he used the synthodrone technology. The room was narrow, long, and very dark, illuminated only by a sliver of fluorescent lighting that ran down either side of the ceiling. Below the lights stood tubular glass containers recessed partly into the walls. Even in the dim light of the room, Kim could see figures inside. Human figures. Or at least what looked like human figures. Bortel had been a very busy man.

"What were you going to do with these?" she asked.

"Sell them," said Bortel. "I am setting up a mail-order synthodrone business. Custom-made. Interested in an order?"

"I think _not_. And you're going out of business, Bortel."

"I believe you will find that nothing here is illegal, per se."

Kim scoffed at Bortel's claim. There was no way that could be true. And yet she began to wonder if the man wasn't lying, at least not completely. It was true that Bortel seemed to dabble in the kinds of things that were hard to define as truly evil. It wasn't like he made devices with the express purpose of killing, destroying, or transmogrifying, whatever that meant. She looked around at the synthodrones in their glass containment tubes, wondering how she would go about shutting his operation down. It was uncanny how human they were. They seemed to be floating in some kind of liquid suspension. Their eyelids were closed, but Kim could swear she saw an occasional twitch behind the skin. She could see every detail, down to the hairs on the fingers.

There was no doubt about it; this was bad. She had to do something about it.

And yet, after what she had seen in Drakken's lair, Kim was surprised by some of the thoughts still lingering in her mind. She looked at the bodies in the tubes, naked and exposed. Men and women. White skin, tan skin, black skin. All different colors. Bortel stood patiently beside her and admired his accomplishments. She turned to him with a question on the tip of her tongue, looking around as if to make sure no one else was listening. Maybe the synthodrones could hear her through the glass.

Kim almost held back, but she couldn't resist; the question finally escaped her lips.

"Just hypothetically," she asked, "can you make these in green?"

XX

* * *

_Notes - Leave a review, then on to chapter two! :-p_


	2. Shut Down

**Shut Down**

XX

Kim regretted asking almost immediately. Maybe it was just prurient interest, or the kind of sick fascination you got when you drove by a car crash and couldn't look away, or maybe she genuinely wanted to know what kind of color combinations were possible for – no, no. That wasn't it. She knew _exactly_ why she was asking. And so did Bortel.

"They do indeed come in green," he said. "This way, please."

Kim followed the increasingly creepy scientist down his chamber of horrors until they stopped in front of a containment tube. Inside, a naked green figure floated serenely in the water, or whatever it was Bortel was using to incubate his synthodrones. A breathing tube descended from the lid of the chamber into its mouth. Electrodes clung to its skin, attached to spindly translucent wires that traveled off towards metal paneling on the sides of the glass tube – the electrodes were waterproof, Kim assumed. Otherwise, the synthodrone inside would probably be looking a lot less placid and more jittery. She felt her eyes travel over the green skin. It looked so real; she could even see tiny hairs raised on its surface, as if they were swaying in the suspension fluid.

For just a moment, her mind wandered...

"They can be woken up within minutes," said Bortel. "Did I mention they are greatly improved over Doctor Drakken's formula? His synthodrone technology was impressive, to be sure, but I have made a few tweaks of my own. If you wanted to, Kim Possible, you could take this one with you before you left – or, perhaps I could accept a personalized order. If you had anything more specific in mind."

Bortel leaned in a little closer, giving Kim a significant look. She shrank back a little. "No!" she said. "Why would you think that?"

"Let us be honest," he said. "I recognize her attractiveness as well. I do not judge you! In just a few days you could take home your own personal model. Usually I negotiate prices with my customers on an individual basis – for you, Kim Possible, I believe I could slash a few dollars off the price, just to make sure we have a friendly customer relationship in the future. Perhaps maintenance could be free of charge, as well."

Kim felt her curiosity ebbing away, replaced by disgust that she had let herself think of such a thing in the first place. Not that she had actually been thinking about anything in particular. Hell no! Seeing naked synthodrones just brought a few inappropriate images to mind, that was all it was – but she wasn't personally interested. The way Bortel kept leaning closer to her, his voice tinged with a certain leering tone, was doing a lot to remove any last vestiges of her curiosity. She was disgusted now, really. What a freak show.

"This has to be illegal," she said. "Don't think you can-"

"Kim Possible!"

Cyrus Bortel and Kim both turned around at the sound of the voice. The synthodrone holding hall in which they were standing was very dark, save for the eerie glow of the containment chambers and the thin, twin lines of fluorescent lighting that ran parallel over the ceiling. Standing in the open door, however, Kim could make out the silhouette of a person framed by the lights back in the main room of Bortel's facility.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"Agent Du. We're here to back you up!"

Kim frowned. Will Du. At least Global Justice actually showed up - there was just the question of _why_, seeing as she hadn't invited them to join her in her visit to Bortel. It wasn't like she was actually fighting any supervillains at the moment; they were a little late for the party at Drakken and Shego's place earlier. "Um, thanks for coming?" she said. "Why are you here, exactly?"

Will Du paused, as if the question had caught him off guard. He turned away from the door and disappeared into the main room. Kim and Bortel left the hall of synthodrone horrors and followed Du in the main room, only to find a number of Global Justice agents standing around. Will Du was talking to one of them, a man wearing dark shades even though the room was well-lit. A moment of hushed whispers passed between them, and then Du turned back and addressed Kim after giving Bortel a stony look that could have – just possibly – been conveying more haughty disdain than usual. But then, it was hard to tell with Will Du.

"We were informed you were on a mission to investigate Cyrus Bortel after getting a tipoff about wrongdoing while you were destroying Drakken's Transmogrification Ray. We thought we'd come along and see if you needed any help."

Kim wondered where they had heard anything about her going on a mission – maybe Ron or Wade had blabbed it. Or Ron had blabbed to Wade, who then blabbed something to Global Justice, which they had misinterpreted. She felt a flush of embarrassment spread over her cheeks; talking to the creator of a synthodrone sex-clone modeled after herself wasn't exactly the kind of thing she wanted Global Justice tagging along to overhear.

"I could have used some help with the Transmogrification Ray," she said testily. "But right now? Not so much. Although, actually, I kind of want to bail, so you guys can do whatever you want. Bortel's been up to some fishy stuff – talk to him about it."

"What kind of fishy stuff? I heard something about a clone?"

Kim felt her cheeks go even redder.

"Yeah, something like that. Just get the sitch from Bortel, alright? His operation needs to be shut down, but I don't want to deal with this."

"Very well," said Will Du. "We'll take care of everything."

Just as he finished speaking, he grabbed Bortel by the arm before the man could inch his way past the other GJ agents. Kim wondered if he was trying to escape; could Global Justice really do anything in this kind of sitch? As much as the whole thing squicked her out, maybe Bortel had a point. She didn't know what was illegal about synthodrones, exactly. Some kind of human trafficking laws might have applied, were it not for the fact that synthodrones weren't human. She pulled out her Kimmunicator and gave Wade a ring.

"What's up?" her tech genius asked after popping up on the monitor.

"Hey, Wade, I'm over at Cyrus Bortel's place, and guess who just dropped by?"

Wade shrugged nonchalantly, apparently not interest in guessing.

"Global Justice."

"Oh, no kidding. Um, that might have been my fault."

"Did Ron tell you all about – uh, about what happened at Drakken's place?"

"He may have. Sorry."

Kim groaned. Talk about humiliating. Why Ron had thought Wade was even old enough to hear such a story was beyond her. Although, now that she thought about it, Wade would probably handle it more maturely than Ron. "Look," she said, "I'd like to shut down Bortel's synthodrone deal, but I don't really know how to do that. And I don't really want to get involved that much anyway."

"Synthodrone deal?"

"Yeah. He's got some kind of weird synthodrone production deal going on over here. Global Justice will give you the details, you can work with them."

"Gotcha," said Wade. "Even if we can't arrest him, we can probably find some other way to put pressure on him."

"Good. Now I'm gonna go home and take a cold shower. And send Berenice back, would you? I'll be waiting on the road that goes by Bortel's place."

"She'll be there."

Kim shut off the Kimmunicator and returned it to her cargo pants pocket. She though about going back and asking Will Du what was up, but she didn't really want to get involved again. For all she knew, Bortel was telling Du all about her momentary lapse of judgment – probably making up some ridiculous story about how Kim Possible had admitted to hidden love for her archenemy, and she and Shego were a hot item now. It was mortifying.

Although she couldn't help being a little amused when she imagined Will Du's reaction. The guy would probably blow a gasket just thinking about it.

XX

"Oooh, Pop Pop Porter's Food-Style Pork Wafers!"

Drakken's comment arose from the sight of the dual snack and drink machines standing against the motel's wall. The two of them had been walking outside along the sheltered porch that connected all the rooms together, and Drakken's little interruption had come just before they reached their own room; Shego was forced to wait impatiently while he fiddled with the machines.

She looked around. It was early morning, and past the flickering lights illuminating the motel room doors, she could see the sky, black and heavy above her. The courtyard was empty, although it was hard to see too many details beyond the limited light coming from the porch area. Nothing looked suspicious, at least. They'd have to lay low for a while until they set up another lair.

"Come on, Doctor D, we gotta get inside."

"Soon enough, Shego! All I want is a little drink and a snack. I hope they weren't lying about having cable."

"Whatever."

Either the machines weren't working, or – more likely – Drakken had no idea how to operate them, because the more buttons he pressed and the more he pounded on the glass display window, the more nothing seemed to happen. It was strange how he could be a genius when it came to morally ambiguous technology, and yet be completely stymied by a simple snack machine. Shego pushed him aside and gave the machine a swift kick, which dislodged a bag of wafers that had gotten caught on their hook. They tumbled down inside the machine until they reached the pickup slot, which Drakken looted gleefully.

"_Now_ are we ready to go inside? I'm tired."

Drakken nodded, clutching his snack as the two of them walked the rest of the way to the motel room. Shego used the key she had been given at reception and opened it up; Drakken went inside, but before Shego joined him, she turned back to the courtyard and made a little waving motion in the air.

A moment later, Kim Possible – the synthodrone version, anyway - appeared from behind some bushes, where she had been waiting for a signal that the coast was clear. She ran across the courtyard and joined them in the motel room. Shego shut the door, hoping no one had noticed. She had been feeling a little defensive ever since Kim and Ron had stumbled on her dirty little secret. Not to mention they were saving a little cash by only paying for two guests.

"Are we staying here for the night?" asked Kim.

Shego nodded. "Apparently, Doctor D hasn't had the time to set up too many safe houses of spare lairs ever since he got out of prison, so we're going bargain bin tonight."

"Can it, Shego!" said Drakken.

Shego glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. Although his mouth was full of food-style wafers, spilling crumbs left and right, his good mood seemed to have disappeared. It didn't take long for her to realize why. Doctor D usually wore his emotions on his sleeve, and in this case, it was pretty obvious he had a problem with their synthetic guest. The sharp glares being thrown Kim's way could cut through steel.

_This_, she thought, _is the reason I didn't want anybody to find out. One reason, anyway._

"I must say, Shego, I'm a little disappointed that you failed to mention anything about owning a fake Kim and keeping her in our lair right under my nose. It's a bit of a shock."

"It wasn't any of your business."

Drakken sputtered a little. "Everything that goes on in my lair is my business, Shego!"

"Um, no, it's not. It's in my contract. If I want guests, I can have guests, no questions asked."

"You know I didn't read that contract, Shego! One of my henchmen signed it! I don't have time for trivialities!"

"Your loss."

Drakken had finished his food-style wafers in record time. He flung the bag to the ground and got up from his seat on the edge of the bed, pointing an accusatory finger at his henchwoman. "Shego, you've got some 'splaining to do," he said, a few straggling wafer crumbs still escaping from his mouth. "A Possible playtoy? She's your teen nemesis, Shego! I can't make any sense of it!"

"She likes to have me around for sex!" chirped the synthodrone Kim.

Drakken and Shego fell into an awkward silence.

"I'm just worried," said Drakken after nervously clearing his throat and avoiding the synthodrone's gaze. "Worried that you're having second thoughts about the evil biz, what with your superhero past and all."

"Oh, please," scoffed Shego. "I'd get married and pop out a bunch of kids before I joined Team Go again."

"You don't want to stop working for me, then?"

"Only if you keep asking stupid questions and give me a hard time about what I do on my off hours, Doctor D."

"Why, then? I don't understand – you have a thing for Kim Possible? I must admit she's a good-looking-"

"Oh my God, please don't say anymore. What are you, like fifty?"

Drakken's face scrunched up indignantly. Shego shrugged; so maybe her guess was off by just a little. "Nowhere near, Shego! How old do you think I am? Besides, I wasn't saying I _personally_ had an attraction to Kim Possible, not that she's an unattractive girl – I just meant that if I was a younger man, and my only competition was a buffoon like Stoppable, I'd be all over-"

"Stop stop stop!"

Shego momentarily held her hands to her ears as she sat down on the bed, waiting until it was clear Drakken was no longer talking. How she would be able to make it through the night in a motel room with him, she had no idea. This was shaping up to be a new low point in her life; maybe even worse than some of her darkest hours with Team Go. Even worse than that time Hego had insisted on her wearing reindeer antlers for Christmas, although that had ended in some satisfying violence. Maybe the one consolation was that her secret was already out – how could her situation possibly get any more embarrassing?

"You seem tense," said Kim. "Maybe we should have sex? Since Doctor D finds me attractive, he could watch, if that made you happy."

Drakken made a strange gurgling sound, like he was choking on air.

"Alright!" said Shego. "_That's it!_"

She leaped up from the bed, looking around for anything she needed to pick up and take with her until realizing she had brought nothing, other than Kim. She made up her mind and headed for the motel room door.

"Shego, where are you going?"

"Out! I don't want to be here. Kim, don't say anything to Doctor D while you're in here, alright? Actually, just sleep in the bathroom. Maybe I'll be back later, I don't know. I need some air."

Shego went out the door, briefly catching sight of Drakken and Kim exchanging confused looks with each other before she slammed it shut. She made her way down the walkway, passing other doors until she reached the vending machines. Pausing briefly, she grabbed a free soda by tipping the drink machine over and shaking it a few times. Someone opened their door and peeked outside at the commotion, only to dart back inside as Shego lit her hand with a threatening glow.

So much for keeping a low profile, she thought. They had barely escaped the destruction of their latest lair, their henchmen scattered to the winds and Drakken's latest plan foiled, and they were making a scene the moment they found a place to rest. Sometimes she wondered why she bothered working for Doctor D. Why she had even chosen the life she lived. Then, she remembered: I

It was pretty damn fun. Most of the time.

Right now, unfortunately, was not one of those times. Shego sighed heavily as she walked aimlessly around the motel grounds, wondering where she was even going. It was a small town, but maybe there was something to see on main street; maybe she'd hang out at a bar somewhere, come back later when Doctor D was asleep. Her mind swam with thoughts, emotions, alarm bells. She had tried playing it cool when Kimmie found out, but she wasn't feeling very cool now. Every passing moment only served to cement the thought that she was caught in a disaster. Somebody like Kim Possible, seeing what she had seen in the lair – if Shego had _ever_ had a chance, there was no way she did now.

And yet...

Shego couldn't shake the feeling. There had to be _something_ there. Especially after the time they had spent together when she was Miss Go, shopping and eating at Bueno Nacho and hanging out – how could Kim really despise her when they had become friends so easily? Shego knew it had been different then, _she_ had been different, but she could swear had still felt something from Kim at the time. Something more than friendship. A possibility from Possible, she thought, amusing herself with her play on words before deciding it was corny.

Even before then, when they had known nothing but animosity, the way the two of them fought each other was electrifying. They were both confidence personified. Take-charge, take no prisoners. The way they traded quips, insults, the way Princess was so cocky around her - they both just _worked_. There was no way Kim Possible could settle for that buffoon. It was denial. How did he deserve her? Where was the spark?

Suddenly, Shego knew where she was headed.

XX

The awkward bulk of the Middleton Smarty Mart loomed up ahead. Early morning sunlight had just begun to drench the roof before it made its way slowly down the walls, like syrup on a stack of pancakes. Kim slowed down as she maneuvered the Sloth into the vast parking lot, looking for a spot until Ron nudged her on the shoulder. "You can just go around back," he said. "There's an employee lot. It's where I clock in, anyway."

"Gotcha."

She drove the car around to the back, glad to avoid the main parking lot; it looked like a busy morning for some reason. Ron was working a Saturday shift, which he had apparently forgotten about until the last minute, and had asked Kim for a ride instead of braving the trip to Smarty Mart on his rickety blue scooter. Kim didn't mind being his ride that much, as she was used to it by now, but it would have been nice if he could remember when he was working. She worried about him sometimes. While he seemed to take pride in his job, Ron could be absent-minded. Once they got to college, Kim couldn't help wondering if some of her boyfriend's problems were only going to get worse.

Then again, she was probably just nitpicking. The fact that it was an awkward ride didn't help. Ever since yesterday, things had been a little awkweird. Seeing a naked mirror image of oneself in the home of one's worst enemy, Kim decided, had a way of throwing a person for a loop.

She had felt a little freaked pretty much non-stop since last night, and it was obvious that Ron wasn't doing much better. He had made some kind of comment about seeing her like that for the first time, but Kim hadn't been able to interpret it: was he upset that things hadn't been going faster between the two of them? She had been under the impression that Ron was fine with that. Or was it just the general wrongsick vibe around the whole thing? A part of her knew it might help to talk about it, but just thinking about it was so embarrassing that she had been tight-lipped ever since they returned from the lair.

"Alright," she said as she pulled into a spot near the loading dock. "Here we are!"

"Thanks, KP. Mind picking me up when my shift is over?"

"No prob. Just call me."

Ron opened the passenger door, but hesitated before getting out. He turned back and looked at his girlfriend.

"Hey, Kim? Do you, uh – do you want to talk about yesterday?"

Kim stared out the window, her hands still on the wheel. She considered the offer.

"Maybe later," she finally said.

Ron shrugged and leaned back into the car to give her a peck on the cheek before closing the door. She watched as he made his way up the loading dock stairs and to the employee door; just before he went through, he looked back out over the employee parking lot, a concerned look on his face, but then shook his head as if dismissing something in his imagination and went inside, closing the door behind him. Kim looked curiously in the rear view mirror, then turned in her seat.

Nothing. Whatever he had been looking at, she couldn't see it from her vantage point.

Instead of driving off immediately, she sat in the car, lost in a funk. Part of her didn't even want to go home, for fear her parents would, once again, ask her why she was acting to strangely. It was hard to lie to them. The problem was that she didn't really want to go into the details of her latest mission. As far as missions went, Kim couldn't think of any that had been weirder. She couldn't make heads or tails of it. Her archenemy, secretly attracted to her? After all the things Shego had done – hell, after all the times Kim had beaten the stuffing out of her? Maybe Shego was a masochist.

And what would future missions be like? Drakken and Shego were always up to _something_, so Kim knew she'd be dropping by their latest lair again sooner or later. Even when they were in prison, it didn't take them long to break out and get themselves into another harebrained world domination plot. But there was no way she and Shego could go back to snarky comments after _that_. Maybe Shego was crazy enough to pretend the whole thing never happened. Kim almost wanted to hunt her down again, pin her up against a wall, demand just what the sitch was-

A sharp rap on her car door startled Kim, and she accidentally brushed the horn with her hand.

"Princess!"

Kim looked out the window: _Shego?_

"Come out," she said. "We need to talk."

Her enemy stepped away from the door as Kim opened it up and got out.

The parking lot was still dark, and Shego's face was dim, wreathed in black hair, but the sunlight was edging down the walls of the Smarty Mart, coming closer. Kim felt a flash of anger even before she was totally out of the car. After what had happened, Shego had the nerve to show up _here_? She looked around the lot; the hovercraft was nowhere in sight, but Shego had probably parked somewhere less visible. She stared at her green-skinned foe, waiting for her to attack.

"What do you want?"

"We need to talk about what happened last night."

"I don't think we do. You're more of a freak than I thought. End of story."

"Come on, Kimmie. You're in denial here. I can't count how many times we were fighting and you pinned me down just a little longer than you needed to, or let up just when you were about to take me out. And I've done the same thing, even if I didn't always realize it. And the way we got along when I was your teacher-"

"Right," laughed Kim. "When you were my _teacher_. How old are you, anyway?"

"Old enough to know when somebody's giving off signals."

"Signals? Since when is it a signal to knock you around? What am I, like totally crushing on every bad guy I go up against?"

"Nope. Just me."

"Right, and nothing is hotter than somebody who's constantly trying to beat me up when they're not getting it on with some freaky sex bot they created to look like me. I'm just dying to jump your bones, Shego."

"Then do it."

Kim let out a yell of frustration, surprised at how easily she was letting her foe work her up. Shego seemed a little surprised as well - she took a step back and raised an eyebrow in amusement.

All this talking... Kim was getting tired of it. She wasn't used to dealing with her enemies without kicks, punches, and corporal punishment. Before she could take action, however, Shego darted forward and took her by surprise. For a minute, Kim thought her foe was coming in for an attack; she tensed, anticipating hitting the ground, ready to leap back up and take Shego on. But there was no attack.

Only a kiss.

Shocked, Kim felt her body pushed against the car door, the cool morning air replaced by a heat radiating from Shego's body. She felt the sensation of Shego's tongue pressing inwards, but before she could even make sense of what was going on, Kim pushed back as hard as she could. Apparently, Shego had not anticipated such a quick rejection. She stumbled backwards, lost her footing, and fell awkwardly to the ground.

Kim stared down at her enemy. Her entire body felt like a rubber band pulled taut, ready to snap. Her heart beat faster, a surge of adrenaline pricking her senses. Despite what she had seen at the lair, even after seeng that naked synthodrone Kim clone, she hadn't been expecting _that_. Shego lay on the ground and looked up. For just a moment – a brief instant, really – she looked more forlorn than Kim had ever seen her. It was bizarre. It was barely Shego, really. Something had to be done, and fast.

"Here's the deal," said Kim. "You and me? _Never_ gonna happen."

XX

Ron had thought it was just his imagination, but after stepping into the employee lounge and looking out the window, he had discovered it was not a trick of the eyes. He stood near the corner of the window, trying not to be noticeable as he peered out into the employee parking lot. There she was: Shego. But why?

The two of them were talking together, standing by the Sloth. There was no way for Ron to hear what they were saying; he could try opening the window, but he didn't want to draw attention to himself with the noise. As he watched, Ron heard the sound of footsteps behind him; he turned to see Mr. Barkin entering the room. Ron jumped a little, feeling like he had been caught doing something bad.

"Stoppable," his teacher said. "What are you doing in here? We need a cleanup in aisle six."

"Not aisle five?"

"No. Why would it be aisle five?"

Ron shrugged before turning back to the window, unable to control his curiosity. The faint sounds of arguing had reached him as Kim and Shego's voices grew louder. He saw Kim gesticulating, angry at something, while Shego seemed more calm and collected. Ron gasped at what he saw next. Suddenly, shockingly – he wasn't even sure he had really seen it at first – Shego darted in close, grabbing Kim, their hair mingling in a mass of black and dim red. A moment later, Kim knocked her back, sending her sprawling over the parking lot pavement. The two of them traded a few more words until Kim got into her car and keyed the ignition. Shego stood for a few more moments, and at one point, she turned in the direction of the store – worried he might be caught, Ron darted back, away from the window.

When he looked out again, she was gone.

"Stoppable!"

Ron whirled around to find Mr. Barkin standing directly behind him.

"Hey, Mr. B, I was just-"

"Martin Smarty is here doing the rounds, Stoppable. Checking all the Smarty Mart branches for delinquent employees like yourself. You're going to be in big trouble if -"

Mr. Barkin trailed off, staring out the window where Ron had been looking. Although Ron had backed away, he knew his teacher had seen something. Mr. Barkin's expression softened, sternness shifting into a bothered frown. Outside, Ron heard the sound of Kim's car driving away, tires squealing.

"Did I just see Miss Go out there?"

"Uh, maybe."

Ron glanced out the window. Although he thought he caught a glimpse of black hair and green skin from beyond a row of cars, he couldn't be sure. Kim and her Sloth were already out of sight. He was about to turn back into the employee lounge when he jumped in fright for the second time – this time almost running into Martin Smarty, who was standing close by and staring out the window with them. "Oh, hey, Mr. Smarty," he said, laughing nervously. "I was just getting ready to clock in!"

Mr. Barkin turned around at the announcement of Martin Smarty's presence and snapped to attention as if he was in the army. Ron tried to resist rolling his eyes; sometimes his teacher seemed to forget he wasn't still in the army.

"Hello, Ronald," Mr. Smarty said, ignoring Barkin's stiff posture. "Don't worry, take your time."

Mr. Smarty turned back to the window with Mr. Barkin, his genial smile turning into a frown. The two of them looked a little bothered by what they had seen outside. "Was that-" said Mr. Smarty, hesitating - "was that Miss Wobackoff I just saw a moment ago?"

Ron shrugged, having no idea who that was.

"No," said Mr. Barkin, "that was Miss Go. The green skinned lady?"

Ron stood awkwardly as the two of them stared at each other in confusion.

"A mysterious woman," said Mr. Smarty, shaking his head.

"Tell me about it."

"Well, I need to get back to my rounds. I'd like to thank the both of you for all your hard work. Mr. Smarty extended a hand and shook theirs vigorously. "Now get back to work before I fire the both of you."

"YES, SIR!"

"I'm kidding, Barkin."

"Yes, sir."

Mr. Smarty left the employee lounge to Ron and Mr. Barkin, who stared at each other uncomfortably for a moment. Mr. Barkin looked back out the window, and despite Shego being long gone, he let out a wistful sigh. Ron was reminded of the double date he and Kim had shared with Miss Go and his teacher. Both of them were their teachers at the time, he supposed. He felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Was Miss Go having a fight with your girlfriend?" asked Mr. Barkin. "I wasn't paying attention, but I thought – and I thought I saw Possible's car out there, too."

"Yeah," said Ron. "I think so."

"Lady troubles, Stoppable?"

"You say that like there's any other kind of trouble, Mr. B."

Mr. Barkin raised an eyebrow at Ron, and his lip curled up in a brief smirk before his expression returned to a sort of wistful daze. He walked out of the lounge without another word. Ron could understand Mr. Barkin and Mr. Smarty's confusion - he didn't know what to make that scene out in the parking lot himself, but he didn't have a good feeling about it. Now he'd have to go to work feeling all funky.

Ron sighed as he looked back out over the employee parking lot, which was now devoid of people. After seeing that freaky naked synthodrone version of Kim in Drakken's lair, this was only piling more layers onto Ron's deep concerns. Shego the violent archenemy was one thing, but Shego the lovesick stalker? Well, that was even scarier. What was weirdest, however, was the fact that neither of them had fought each other, other than the one brief shove from Kim. Seeing the two of them together, just talking, was a strange sight.

Now that Ron thought about it, the two ladies _had_ been together for a long time when Shego was under the effect of the Attitudinator. Almost like best friends, really. He had definitely been concerned at the time, totally freaked by the way they were bonding. And Ron could remember another time when Kim and Shego had run up against each other without ending in a brawl: that whole Warmonga sitch. Shego had actually _helped_ them that time. Somehow, Kim and Shego interacting without punches and kicks was becoming more common than Ron had first believed.

He couldn't make sense of it, but something about the exchange left an unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach. Ron didn't like what he was seeing. Not one bit.

XX

* * *

_**IMPORTANT** - I will be changing the title of this story to "Mirror" once I get around to posting chapter 3, as well as changing the description and genres. "Caught Green-Handed" is a good title for the first chapter, but not for the story as a whole; however, I wanted to keep that title for now, so as not to confuse anyone who had the story on alerts or recognized it from reading it as a one-shot in the past. Just FYI.  
_

_Thanks for reading/reviewing! :)_


	3. Curious

**Curious**

XX

Time didn't do the trick. And neither, apparently, did a cold shower.

Days had passed – more than a week, actually – since that bizarre mission to Drakken and Shego's lair. There hadn't been any word on them since then, but the whole episode lingered on Kim's mind like a big naked question mark. She saw herself naked in the mirror all the time, or here in the school showers after a particularly tiring gym practice, but something about seeing another her entirely, walking around in a separate but identical body? Well, it was sick and wrong, as Ron liked to say.

Since she would be busy all afternoon, Kim had asked the cheer team to come in a little early before school and get in some practice for an upcoming game. They had been kind enough to oblige, despite a lot of complaints from Bonnie. It had been a good practice, and she had been looking forward to hitting the showers before their classes began - but now, what should have been a simple shower was turning into another twist in the tangled knot of Kim's inner turmoil.

Teen angst totally sucked.

"That split was awesome!"

Tara's voice came from within a cloud of steam near the corner of the shower room. It looked like she was talking to Hope. People didn't normally talk much while they were showering, but Tara was an exception to that rule. She was pretty much happy to chat with anyone, not experiencing the slight awkwardness of public nudity the way the other girls did. Kim was already out the shower, putting her clothes back on in the adjacent locker area, but she had a clear view. Tara was a little hard to see, but someone else had caught her attention:

Bonnie Rockwaller.

Kim had been in denial for a few days after their last mission, but the more she tried to ignore it, the more it kept wriggling to the surface of her mind. An insistent voice that couldn't be silenced. There was no doubt about it: seeing her synthodrone self kissing Shego, and then, in the parking lot, being kissed _by_ Shego – all of it had set off some strange feelings. Maybe a little bit of revulsion when Shego kissed the synthodrone, a little terror when Shego kissed _her_, maybe some anger and indignation thrown in for good measure.

But one feeling lasted longer than the rest. Sort of a tingly, excited feeling.

Kim blushed at the thought, but she continued to stare at Bonnie. The girl was totally tan. More tan than Kim could ever hope to get; she didn't go brown, she went red. Ron had told her he liked her light skin and occasional freckles, but sometimes Kim felt insecure about it. About the only thing she had on Bonnie was her vibrant red hair, but then again, Bonnie's hair was gorgeous too, relatively speaking.

Kim had looked at Bonnie before, of course. Given her a once-over from time to time. She had always assumed it was a competitive instinct, or even jealousy, although she hated to admit that. But something about seeing Bonnie's fingers rubbing soap on taut, tan, teen thighs, spying the full curve of breasts heaving under a haze of steam, counting the water droplets glistening on the curve of her naked back...

Could it be possible? Did Bonnie turn her on? More generally, did _girls_ turn her on?

"Um, K? What's the deal?"

Kim stared for a few more seconds before realizing that Bonnie had turned around in the shower, exposing herself entirely, hands placed petulantly on soapy hips. It was a sight to see, and Kim had to give herself a sort of mental pinch in order to break out of her funk. She turned hastily to her open locker, rummaging through it for her backpack. "Nothing," she said. "What are you talking about?"

"You were totally staring at me."

"No I wasn't."

"Yeah, you were! Like you were checking me out or something."

Kim laughed, a little too loudly. "Don't flatter yourself, Bonnie."

Bonnie gave a grunt of exasperation; fortunately, it sounded like she wasn't going to press the subject, as Kim had noticed a couple other teammates already at their lockers shooting raised eyebrows at each other. Tara gave both Kim and Bonnie a questioning look as she emerged from the other side of the shower, where Kim hadn't had a good view – once again, faced with another naked body, she was caught off guard. She made a point of avoiding eye contact with Tara, or anyone else on the team. Fortunately, the beep-beep-_be_-beep of her Kimmunicator rang out from inside her backpack, providing a welcome distraction.

"Hey, Wade," she said as her tech genius friend popped into view, "what's the sitch?"

"Oh my God, _Kim!"_ screamed one of her teammates. "I don't have a shirt on!"

Kim flushed with embarrassment as she realized she was not in a great place to take a Kimmunicator call. "Sorry girls," she said with a stammer as she ran out of the room.

"That's okay!" yelled Wade. "I didn't see anything!"

Once Kim had a little privacy, she resumed the conversation. "Got a mission?"

"Yup! Can you be in front of the school in about five minutes?"

"Sure," said Kim. It was short notice, but she didn't mind a break from school – she kind of wanted to avoid Bonnie for a while after what had just happened. Not to mention she had been having trouble focusing on schoolwork lately. "So what's on the plate today?"

"Drakken and Shego."

Kim frowned. "Um, could Global Justice handle this, Wade?"

"Why? Oh - is it because of that whole sex clone thing?"

"_No!_"

"Okay, okay! I was just wondering, don't bite my head off. And no, GJ can't do it; Dr. Director said they're busy with a covert op in Rodighan right now."

"Seriously? How can they do _anything_ covert there? The place is like the size of a sandbox."

"Don't ask me. But I think this one's yours, Kim."

"Fine. I'm on it."

Kim shut off the Kimmunicator with a sigh and passed through the empty gym. She checked the hallway before heading towards the front doors, hoping to avoid Mr. Barkin so she wouldn't have to listen to his usual spiel about skipping classes before he inevitably let her skip class for a mission.

She had been looking forward to a mission, but Drakken and Shego? Not so much. Hopefully there wouldn't be any nude synthodrone shenanigans this time – although, when she thought about it, that wasn't her most pressing worry. There was something else weighing more heavily on her mind:

How she was going to deal with seeing Shego again.

XX

"Ready, Ron?"

Ron cracked his knuckles and nodded to his girlfriend, demonstrating he was totally ready. Seeing as he had been just about to take a pop quiz in chemistry, getting out of class to go on a mission was a welcome distraction. He and Kim stood in front of the main entrance to Hench Co, where they had just arrived after Kim took them on a breakneck trip through Middleton's streets in her Sloth. Ron had a need for speed just like anybody else, but KP took it a little far sometimes. There was something about the Possibles and things powered by rocket fuel...

"Kim Possible?"

A security guard outside the main entrance stopped the them at the door.

"And Ron Stoppable!" Ron added.

"Um, yeah. Come on in, they're still inside."

Ron nodded as the security guard waved the two of them past. They went through Hench Co's front doors, entering a wide lobby decorated by ostentatious amounts of marble columns and potted plants. Jack Hench had called Wade after his on-site labs had registered intruders, the security cameras picking up flashes of green and blue skin. Kim and Ron had arrived as quickly as possible, although Ron wondered if Drakken and Shego had escaped already.

The two of them were about to head for the information desk and get an update on what was going on when Jack Hench popped his head up from behind a desktop monitor. He stepped out from behind the desk and walked briskly towards them, smoothing out his business suit and tie on the way. "Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable," he said, shaking their hands vigorously. "So nice of you to stop by and lend me a hand!"

"How come you couldn't stop them with your henchmen?" asked Kim.

"You mean security team?" asked Jack Hench.

Kim rolled her eyes and nodded.

"I'm a little short today. Most of them are on medical leave after an unfortunate accident with a batch of Neuroparalysis Discs. Let's just say that next time our labs make those, they'll make sure the boxes carry 'not a frisbee' warnings on them."

Ron winced. "Yowch."

"So where's Drakken and Shego?"

"They're ransacking the labs," said Hench. "We think they came in through the roof. I have all the back and side entrances sealed off, so as soon as they grab what they came for, they should be heading through the upper floors to-"

"_Kim Possible!_"

Hench, Kim, and Ron turned in unison towards a hallway that led away from the lobby and past a pair of elevator doors. One of the doors was open, having just risen from a lower level, and Drakken and Shego stood frozen in place at the far end of the lobby. Ron noticed a single henchman behind them, holding some kind of massive device and straining under its weight. While Drakken looked shocked to see his teen foes, Ron had noticed Shego's expression changing from amusement to a weirder, unreadable look, just after she caught sight of Kim.

"Who's the henchman?" asked Kim.

"Assad Sacke," said Drakken. "He used to be my Chief Officer in charge of Kim Possible Detection, but we demoted him to regular henchman after last time."

Ron felt a little sorry for the man. Sacke looked sheepish, although his face only barely protruded from behind the strange device he was holding. As far as Ron could tell, it looked like some kind of clunky, cylindrical device with a tapered drilling head. "This is really heavy," Sacke moaned.

"Quiet, Sacke!"

Jack Hench took a step forward, folding his arms over his chest. "I'm afraid nothing from the Hench Co laboratories is for sale, Doctor Drakken. Not even the Tunneler for Utilization of Sub-Crustal Heat Induction and Energy, which I see you're holding. It's still under development, you see."

"Too bad, Hench! Shego and I are helping ourselves."

"Why do you even _need_ that Tunneler?" Hench complained. "It hasn't even been beta-tested yet!"

"You may as well ask a mountain climber why he climbs a mountain!"

Ron nudged Hench confidentially on the arm and leaned in close. "Drakken likes to steal stuff and tinker with it. He calls it 'outsourcing.'"

"Nothing wrong with outsourcing," said Hench, wagging a finger. "I do that. Most of my marketing division is based in Kyrgyzstan, you know."

"See!" shouted Drakken, overhearing the conversation. "There's nothing wrong with outsourcing, Rob – Rod – whatever your name is! And I'll have you know, that's not even why we're stealing this. We needed some money, so we're going to sell it on the black market!"

"Why not just use Ebay?" asked Ron.

Drakken stroked his chin. "Hmm. What is that, some kind of website?"

Assad Sacke's knees trembled a little as he shifted position. "Please," he said, "so - heavy-"

"You won't be selling my TUSHIE to strangers on the internet," said Hench. "Not if I can help it! Why did you come up through the lobby, anyway?"

"Because _no_ _one_ expects the lobby! You thought we'd take the roof, didn't you!"

Shego rolled her eyes, apparently not agreeing with her boss's logic, although now that Ron thought about it, Drakken was technically right. If he and Kim hadn't arrived at just the right time, their foes might have walked right out of the building pretty easily. He noticed Jack Hench cough abruptly in Kim's direction.

"Hey, KP," he said. "I think Hench wants us to stop them or something."

"Oh, right."

Shego took a position in front of Drakken and Sacke while she and Kim cautiously approached each other. Ron noticed a change in Kim's body as she prepared to attack. He had spent enough time on missions with her that he could pick up on things like that, even if they were almost imperceptible. Neither one of the women seemed keen on making the first move, though; it was like they were both scoping each other out. Drakken edged away from them, about to make his way towards the front door, and grabbed his henchman by the arm to make him follow, which almost sent Sacke toppling to the floor under the weight of the Tunneler. Ron knew his job was to stop the man before he could get away.

It was easier than trying to take on Shego, at least.

"Out of my way, buffoon!"

"Bring it on, Drakken!"

Ron leaped forward just as his foes tried to dart out of the way. He almost missed, but managed to hit the edge of the Tunneler Sacke was holding in a particularly painful glancing blow. Sacke helped and dropped the clunky contraption, narrowly avoiding being pinned beneath it.

Drakken let out a shout of irritation and grabbed Ron, trying to knock him over, but only managed to send both of them toppling to the ground beside the Tunneler. Ron felt Drakken's tiny hands clawing at him – creepy, for sure – as the two of them wrestled each other, each one trying to keep the other from getting up again. Sacke seemed to be taking a moment on the floor to catch his breath. The man was a little small for a henchman, especially if they had taken him along to lug their heavy loot.

"Let me go!" shouted Drakken. "You're fighting dirty!"

"So are you! Your hands are going places no man's hands should ever go!"

"Only because you're wriggling so much, buffoon!"

Drakken managed to get in a good shove, and Ron felt himself sliding backwards. _These floors are _way_ too polished_, he thought. Drakken began to scramble towards the Tunneler, but he didn't make it more than a few feet forward before several Hench Co security officers leaped on top of him. Ron leaped towards Sacke and pinned him down. The man didn't put up much of a fight. The Tunneler was safe for now, and Drakken seemed to be subdued, but the fight between Kim and Shego was still raging.

Sort of, anyway.

The two of them were fighting each other, trading punches and kicks as they circled, but as Ron watched, something about it seemed off. Like neither one of them was putting much into it. Kim landed a good kick on Shego, sending her smacking into a wall, but instead of taking the opportunity to attack Shego further, she seemed to fall back and wait for her rival to recover. Shego threw a bolt of green plasma, but to Ron, it almost looked like it wasn't aimed at anything. Not that Shego's aim with her crazy plasma hand was ever that good, but _still_...

"Come on, Shego!" yelled Drakken from where he was pinned uncomfortably to the lobby floor. "Stop fighting so lame! Pick it up!"

"_Shut it,_ Doctor D!"

Shego and Kim began to circle each other again until Shego made an abrupt feint forward. Instead of countering it, Kim darted back. Ron was surprised at how nervous she seemed. Like she was skittish, reluctant. He had seen her fighting Shego many times before, and this was odd. It wasn't like the Kim Possible he knew.

"What's wrong, Princess? Tired?"

Kim snorted derisively. "Just wondering if another naked synthodrone is going to come walking out of those elevators," she said.

"What, did it turn you on?"

"In your dreams!"

The two of them clashed again, locked in a dance of alternating blows and blocks, a little fiercer than before. After a moment, Kim managed to catch Shego in the crook of her leg with a sweeping kick, sending her toppling down to the floor. Just as she landed, however, Shego threw her hand out and caught Kim by the ankle, throwing her off balance as well. The two of them wrestled each other on the ground, just like Ron and Drakken had – but this, Ron thought, this was a little different. He noticed Jack Hench staring. Several members of his security team also stared while still pinning Drakken to the ground.

"Hey, kid," said Hench, whispering conspiratorially. "Is it just me, or is this kind of hot?"

Assad Sacke nodded in agreement from where he was awkwardly pinned to the floor. Ron shot them both an angry glare, to which Hench shrugged apologetically in reply.

As he watched his girlfriend and Shego writhing on the floor, however, Ron's imagination couldn't help wandering. Shego was hot for an older lady, no doubt about it. He knew guys like Brick would probably be totally into this kind of scenario. And yet something about it rubbed him the wrong way. As Ron watched, Kim managed to get the upper hand, twisting so that she could use her thights to pin Shego belly up on the floor, her hand grasping a shock of jet black hair. Shego growled angrily as she struggled – but just for a moment, the two of them seemed to slow down. Almost to a standstill.

Ron heard a catcall from one of the Hench Co security officers.

"Get off me!" said Kim.

"You're the one on _me_, Kimmie!"

With one free hand, Shego managed to send a blast of green flame straight into Kim's chest, flinging her back and away. Shego scrambled back to her feet.

Before he even knew what was going on, Ron flinched as a Hench Co security officer skidded over the floor beside him. He looked over to see Drakken standing up as well, apparently taking advantage of a lapse in the attention of his captors. Ron raced towards him, but Drakken ran towards Shego like a dog retreating to its master. She stepped forward, ready to attack. Ron tried to stop, but the polished marble floor was way too slippery; he felt his feet skidding against his will, bringing him forward until Shego extended an arm and caught him a clothesline across the chest. Ron hit the floor with a thud.

"Stop them!" yelled Jack Hench. "Stop that man holding my TUSHIE!"

"It's my TUSHIE now, Hench!" cackled Drakken.

Ron groaned, splayed out on the floor, as he saw what was happening. Assad Sacke, whom Ron had unintentionally released when he went for Drakken, was trying to awkwardly roll the Tunneler for Utilization of Sub-Crustal – well, whatever it was called – towards the main entrance. Hench himself rushed forward to stop him, as the guy did look pretty well built, but Shego took him down before he even knew what hit him. Hench's security officers looked hesitant to rejoin the fray – maybe their boss didn't pay them enough.

"Out of the way, Sacke," growled Shego. She pushed the man aside and lifted up the heavy piece of equipment herself, heading for the door as Sacke trailed behind, looking very downtrodden.

"Come on, Shego," said Drakken as the security officers took their time regrouping, "Let's get out of here!"

"Whatever you say, Doctor D. Until next time, Princess!"

Drakken, Shego, and their henchman made a break for the front doors as Jack Hench got up from where he had been laid out on the floor, much like Ron had. He raced towards the information desk. Ron, knowing there was no way he could stop his enemies, helped Kim up as she recovered from Shego's vicious plasma blast. Hench pressed a button behind the desk that brought a metal emergency shutter crashing down to cover the main entrance, but it was too late. Alarm klaxons rang out as their three foes burst out of the lobby and into the front parking lot. The metal doors, unfortunately, managed to seal off the entrance just in time to prevent anyone from pursuing them.

"Nice one," said Kim.

The lobby fell into a brief silence. A couple of the security officers stood around sheepishly, although some of them, as far as Ron could tell, had already disappeared elsewhere in the building, as if they were anticipating a chewing out from Hench. Ron pulled up his shirt a little, looking at the bruise that was developing on his side where he had hit the Tunneler. Kim looked lost in a funk, still staring at the metal emergency doors.

"What's the deal, KP?" he asked. "Seemed like you were off your game a little."

Ron hadn't meant to sound that critical. But from the way Kim looked at him, she didn't take it well.

He blanched as his girlfriend gave him a glare, then turned to join Hench's security henchmen as they cleaned up dirt and porcelain shards scattered across the lobby from a couple of potted ferns knocked over during the fight. Ron considered helping them, but his girlfriend seemed like she was in a bad mood; maybe it was best to hold back. It wasn't like things had gone _that_ bad, after all. Drakken was just going to sell the Tunneler on the black market, so it wasn't like he was using it for nefarious purposes. That was something.

Ron knew he was clutching at straws. Not only that, but his attempt at making the best of the situation fell flat on its face with a look at the clock hanging on the wall above the lobby's information desk. He groaned; it wasn't even that late yet! He knew Kim would insist on them going back to school to catch their last class, even if he suggested Bueno Nacho instead.

Lost in self-pity, Ron jumped in surprise as Jack Hench sidled up to him and spoke in a muted tone.

"She may be your girlfriend, Ron, but there was _definitely_ some kind of spark going on between them during that fight. You should keep your eyes open. Could be an opportunity, if you know what I mean. Maybe your girlfriend wouldn't mind having a guest over to mix up the old love life a little - I bet that Shego is a real firecracker in the sack."

The lewd comment made Ron suppress a gag, although it wasn't so much in response to Hench's comment as it was to the fact that Hench himself was making it. The man had always seemed a little slimy, like a used car salesman who sold some very dangerous models to supervillains, but Ron wished the guy would stick to talking business instead of pleasure. He didn't want Shego running wild with his girlfriend in Hench's imagination.

And yet there the ladies were, running wild in _his_ imagination.

Ron didn't like it, but Hench was right about one thing: that fight _had_ been awkweird. The usual tension between Kim and Shego was replaced with, well – tension. But a very different kind of tension. Unless Ron had just been totally oblivious on all his past missions with Kim. And there was no question where the tension was coming from, either, just like the rest of Kim's strange behavior in the past week or so: it had started with their last mission to Shego and Drakken's lair.

It was because of that synthodrone.

Unsettled and worried, Ron couldn't believe he was starting to wish they could just stick to Monkey Fist.

XX

The class bell rang just as Kim retrieved a textbook from her locker and stuffed it into her backpack. _One class to go,_ she thought.

The mission with Ron earlier that afternoon had been draining, despite the fact that there was less fighting than usual. And she knew why: Shego. Not only was dealing with Shego weird, but dealing with her boyfriend had been weird on the way back. Ron definitely seemed to be picking up on the fact that something was going on. Kim hoped she wasn't so transparent to everyone else at school.

"Better get to class," said Bonnie as she came down the hall from her own locker. "I can't believe you came back to school after a mission. You're such a nerd, K!"

"Some people would like to pass high school, Bonnie."

Her high school nemesis passed by, flipping her hair impudently in Kim's direction. Kim made sure to put a little distance between them before following Bonnie to their shared class. Most of the class was already there, and Mr. Barkin – who seemed to be taking another teacher's place as substitute, as usual – stood at the front as he jotted some notes down on the blackboard. Bonnie was already squeezing between two rows of students towards a seat in back, and Kim grimaced involuntarily as she surveyed the room; only one seat left. And it would be next to Bonnie.

"Please take a seat, everyone."

Kim made her way to the back and took her seat beside Bonnie. She opened her backpack, rummaging through several textbooks to find the right one. When she pulled it out, however, another book - which had been wedged alongside it - ended up falling from the pack. It lay on the floor, face up.

Kim felt like she had just been dunked in ice water. It was the book she had bought from Smarty Mart the other day after school, alone, dressed in a ridiculous getup to avoid recognition. Apparently she had forgotten to take it out of her backpack when she got home that day.

And now, here it was. Right in front of Bonnie.

"Oh. My. _God._"

Bonnie snatched the book from the floor before Kim could get to it. She was shocked by her rival's lightning speed – Bonnie was no match for her in cheerleading, and would drop in five seconds if they ever fought, but when it came to gossip and humiliation, apparently Bonnie's reflexes could beat even years of martial arts training. Kim flinched as Bonnie rose up from her chair with a cackle of triumph.

"Kim, you pervert!" she said loudly.

Every head in class turned.

"_Bi-Curious for Dummies!_ So _that's_ why you were ogling me in the shower earlier!"

In that moment, Kim wondered if there was any way she could melt right into her desk, invisible to everyone. There had to be some kind of technology for it – something Wade or Drakken invented, maybe. But she had nothing to help her, nothing to hide her. She felt eyes boring holes in her head from all angles. A few muffled titters came from around the class. Several of the boys immediately looked at her with leering grins. Strangely, one of the girls – a short girl, with auburn hair and a blue shirt, whose name Kim did not know despite seeing her in school all the time – gave her a barely noticeable thumbs up.

"Kim Possible can be as bi-curious as she wants to be!" said Mr. Barkin, who had turned around at the sound of the commotion. "She can be _tri_-curious, for all I care, as long as she's quiet and seated! The same goes to you, Rockwaller!"

"Um, Mr. B, I'm _totally_ not a-"

"SIT DOWN!"

Silenced, Bonnie sank back into her seat as the rest of the class turned to the front.

"Also, return Miss Possible's book to her, and see me after class."

Bonnie grudgingly returned Kim's book, taking out her own textbook and getting ready for their lesson. "It was worth it," she whispered before turning back to her book with a malicious smirk.

Kim settled down into her seat, humiliated. Although Mr. Barkin had begun lecturing, she caught the furtive glances of her classmates from time to time, looking back at her whenever they got the chance. This was torture. Seeing her school nemesis get detention would have been enough to perk up even one of Kim's worst days, but in this case, it did nothing.

Maybe if they hadn't gotten a good look at the book's cover, her classmates would think Bonnie was joking. Or maybe they'd just forget about it. Heck, even if she was a little confused, that didn't have anything to do with her position on the food chain, did it?

_Who am I kidding_, she thought. _Goodbye, social life._

XX

"Welcome to my humble laboratory!"

Cyrus adjusted his glasses and gave a friendly nod to his guest, Bill Vito, who stepped through the door and took a look around as he slicked back his graying hair. It wasn't normal practice for his clients to pay a personal visit to his labs, but Mr. Vito had insisted, and Cyrus was happy to accommodate a customer if it meant making a sale. Although Cyrus was a scientist, scientists were always in need of funding. And lately, Ebay just hadn't been cutting it.

"Nithe place you have here," said Vito, a lisp in his voice. Bortel couldn't help noticing a comically wide gap between his two front teeth, as well, but he knew it wasn't nice to stare.

"Thank you, Mr. Vito. I am honored that you took the time off from your job to pay me a visit."

"It'th not a big deal. Being mayor of Go City ith not a problem when you have Team Go working for you!"

"I can imagine. If you would please accompany me, I will show you the details of my operation."

"Not muth for the thmall talk, I take it?"

Cyrus didn't know quite what Vito meant – did customers expect small talk? He was no businessman. Apparently he still had a few things to learn.

The two of them made their way deeper into his mountain laboratory until Cyrus reached the production center, ushering the mayor into its dim recesses. While there had once been a single hall, gloomily lit and lined with rows of containment chambers, Cyrus had been doing a little expanding, and now several lines of containment chambers branched off in crisscrossing directions like tunnels in a warren. A central axis, where the halls met, contained a column lined with various terminals, data screens, and controls.

When Kim Possible and Global Justice had visited a week or two ago, Cyrus's synthodrone creation operation was in its fledgling stages; the syntho-Kim, really, had been his first serious experiment with a more advanced synthodrone, as opposed to a glorified blowup doll. But now he was on the verge of going full time. He had even hired a few assistants to help him out, although he sometimes wondered if hiring people with no hope of matching his genius was just a waste of time and money.

"Thpooky," said Bill Vito as the two of them walked down a hall of containment chambers. The mayor peered into each glass tube as they passed. "All thethe thingth are for, uh – you know?"

"Not all of them," said Bortel. "But many. I am still experimenting with them, so most of these will not go into production; they are only test models. But customers want them for various purposes. Sometimes they do not wish to tell me exactly why they are ordering one."

"Well, I don't mind being honetht," said Vito. "I'm an old man, and I don't have loth of time to date in Go Thity with all my buthywork. A companion would be nithe."

Cyrus nodded, humoring his customer. Some would have been grossed out by the fact that Vito wanted a companion about a third of his age, but Cyrus didn't judge. He wasn't in the business of morality. Besides – synthodrones weren't the real thing, so there wasn't really any ickiness, was there? He was a little amused that Vito had mentioned how easy it was to run the city with Team Go just moments ago, and was now complaining about his workload, but decided it was better not to say anything.

"This one is yours," he said, pointing to a blonde model suspended in its growing fluid. "It will be ready within a week, at which point you can pay the delivery fee."

"That'th not a problem," the mayor said. "I'll jutht thkim it off Go City's eduthathion budget."

"I am sorry - what did you say?"

"Thkim it off the eduthathion budget!"

The mayor enunciated more loudly, sending a little bit of spittle flying against Bortel's cheek.

"I always thaid that wath a wathte of rethourtheth, anyway. Juth read a book!"

Bortel had no idea what Vito had said in the first part of his statement, but he smiled and nodded anyway.

"Anyway, thhe lookth very pretty. Ith she bendy?"

"She is _very_ bendy," said Bortel. "And anatomically correct, too"

"Exthellent," said Vito. "And we have full confidentiality, correcth?"

"Absolutely."

Cyrus couldn't help wondering why Go City's mayor had bothered coming to his laboratory if the man really wanted full confidentiality – it was possible to handle the whole process online, after all, and while his few initial customers had mostly picked up the synthodrones, Cyrus had the connections to mail them through air freight without drawing any attention. For an increased fee, of course.

As if in answer to his musings, Vito cleared his throat. "I wanted to thee it mythelf," he said. "It ith an expenthive invethtment, after all."

"I understand. You're paying for the highest quality orifices."

Bortel made a mental note: _change quality slogan to something else._

"Tho, what'th the legality here, anywayth?"

Cyrus knew a man in Vito's position didn't care about legality. It was just curiosity speaking. "It is legal enough," he said. "There will be no trouble."

"I thee."

Cyrus smiled as he led Vito around to some of the other containment chambers, letting him see what kind of variety he could have in a custom-made synthodrone, pointing out various details of the process. Not that Cyrus revealed any of his trade secrets, of course. When he first learned of synthodrones, Bortel had been amazed that Drakken had never done anything profitable with his technology - only creating a fake teen heartthrob to mess with that Kim Possible, as Shego had explained during her visit to get her own little companion. It was a cash cow, but somehow Drakken missed that. Synthetic slavery, without any of the moral ick factor that came with the real kind.

Legal or not, Cyrus had been a bit concerned when Kim Possible got nosy. The girl and her dorky sidekick had given him a hand in the past, but he could always tell they could be troublesome with their overbearing sense of right and wrong. Kim, moreso than the blond sidekick, seemed competent enough to make things difficult for him. Her tech helper - that young boy, Wade Load - had wanted him to shut down his operation, threatening him with various business and legal repercussions that may or may not have made any difference.

Fortunately, Global Justice had gotten involved.

Wade had been reassured that GJ would take care of things. Cyrus Bortel and Global Justice had a long and friendly relationship together – they had been one of his most generous customers when it came to his past inventions, after all. Overbearing teen heroes could be difficult sometimes, but Global Justice? They understood. They knew full well how the world worked. Cyrus had assured them he wasn't up to anything too dangerous, given them a little overview of his operation, and they had agreed to turn a blind eye in the interest of mutual friendship.

It was possible Cyrus had been fibbing a little, though.

He told them he was in it for the money, and right now, at least, that was true. His only immediate interest was in fattening his bank account. But in the long run, he wasn't so sure. Tinkering with new inventions was fun, but was that all there was to life? Dealing with supervillains, with heroes like Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, seeing the kind of hijinks involved, the potential power always waiting just beyond the reach of nincompoops like Drakken – it was tempting, alright. He had been getting some ideas lately. Even calling Drakken a nincompoop was a bit harsh, Bortel had to grudgingly admit. The man could never capitalize on his genius, but he didn't seem interested in business and profits the way Bortel was. They were means to an end, if anything. Even if he never really got it, Drakken had his eyes on power. All of the supervillains did, not to mention people like Bill Vito, who got it through more conventional means.

All this time, Cyrus couldn't help wondering if he just hadn't been thinking big enough.

XX

* * *

_Notes - That's it for now. Reviews are appreciated. I'll probably be updating this once a week or so, but I may pick it up to 2x a week once I have things nailed down more solidly (I'm finished with about 3/4 of the story in rough form). Next chapter, find out what's been happening with Shego and her red haired love bunny!_


	4. Like the Real Thing

**Like the Real Thing**

XX

What was once a lunch room was now a mine field.

Kim turned from the counter, tray of gray mystery meat and creamed spinach in hand, and surveyed the dangers before her. Jocks at the table over there; best to avoid them. Bonnie Rockwaller at a another table nearby, eating with some of the cheerleaders; she'd have _something_ to say, like she always did. Kim decided there was no avoiding comments if she wanted to get to where Monique, Ron, and Felix were already sitting. She stepped into the fray.

Of course, she had already been dealing with gossip and under-the-table rumor over the last couple of days, but it wasn't getting any easier. Lunch was probably the worst time – people had a lot of free time to talk amongst themselves, class wasn't about to start, and the gossip flew thick and heavy. And ever since the Queen Bee of Middleton High School gossip had found Kim with her incriminating book, people had had a _lot_ to talk about. Kim hadn't even gotten halfway to her friends before the tanned terror caught sight of her.

"Hey, K!" shouted Bonnie, her voice bringing the lunch room's usual chatter to a lull. "Nice cheer practice yesterday, but could you be a little less grabby when you're getting to the top of the human pyramid?"

It was unfortunate that Kim was feeling very hungry, because she had a sudden urge to fling her tray right in Bonnie's face. For the sake of her stomach, she resisted the impulse. A couple of the cheerleaders who were closer to Bonnie snickered, casting brief glances in Kim's direction before looking back down at the table.

"Come on," said Tara meekly, pulling on Bonnie's sleeve. "Leave her alone."

Kim was happy to hear one of her teammates defending her, at least. But she didn't linger long enough to hear anything else. She hurried over to the lunch table where her friends were sitting, experiencing the eerie feeling of eyes trailing her all the way there. Ron and Felix looked a little confused. Felix probably didn't have a lot of details, not being big on school gossip, and her boyfriend pretty much always looked confused – but Monique, obviously having been one of the first to be in the know, raised a sympathetic eyebrow.

"So what's the deal, if you don't mind me asking?" asked Felix. "People have been saying stuff lately."

Kim poked lazily at her mystery meat. "I don't mind you asking, but I'd kinda rather just eat, actually."

"That's cool."

Kim caught a look from Ron that managed to package curiosity, fear, and concern into one. Monique said nothing, but Kim could tell her friend was well aware of all the chatter on the school grapevine, although she hadn't actually told Monique about the incident with the book yet. She wondered if her friend was too weirded out to bring it up over the last few days. She cursed her bad luck – she _never_ should have gone to Smarty Mart's Self-Exploration aisle. Most of those books were just a big scam, anyway.

"So, girl," said Monique hesitantly, "are we uh – are we still on for the mall this afternoon?"

"Of course," said Kim. "Why wouldn't we be?"

Monique shrugged.

"What are you guys gonna do there?" asked Ron.

Monique gave him an affectionate pat on the shoulder. "Girl stuff, Ron. You wouldn't understand."

Kim blushed a little, interpreting Monique's comment in the way she was sure her friend didn't mean, and Monique caught the reaction. It was hard to tell if she was blushing under her dark complexion, but Kim was pretty sure the two of them were equally embarrassed. At least Monique didn't seem to be judging her. Kim made up her mind – she needed to talk about things to someone. She would have to have a good chat with Monique after they checked out Club Banana's latest selection.

"Hey, Stoppable," said Felix. "We still on for some zombie bashing at my place?"

"You know it."

"Excellent."

Their conversation trailed off, and Kim dug into the mystery meat. Lukewarm, rubbery, and a little bit mottled; whatever animal had died to create it wasn't a mystery _she_ wanted to solve. The creamed spinach, however, was surprisingly decent. Kim ate in silence, not feeling up for a lot of conversation. While her friends engaged in the occasional small talk, she couldn't help noticing all the times one of her classmates, sitting at an adjacent table, would shoot her a furtive glance. Every time she saw a group of her classmates talking amongst themselves, she couldn't help wondering if she was the subject.

Was that narcissistic? She wasn't sure.

She had always been used to being the popular girl. Only Bonnie posed a threat in the social arena, and despite Kim's insecurities, she was pretty sure Bonnie wasn't as popular. But everything was in limbo now. Where did she stand with her classmates? What did they think of her, if they all thought she was a lesbian or something? Kim didn't even know _what_ she was, really. Reading books hadn't been helpful. Searching the internet had brought up a huge amount of information, but most of it wasn't exactly useful for self-actualization. Just self-titillation. Even that awkward moment with Bonnie in the shower hadn't really given her much to go by – it _seemed_ like she found Bonnie attractive, but was that really a sexual thing?

The only thing Kim knew for sure was that Shego brought out a reaction in her. It was something raw, animal, not like anything she had felt with Ron. Whether that meant she was a lesbian, bisexual, interested in Shego, not interested in Ron, all or some of the above, she didn't know. And she _hated_ not knowing.

Lost in her thoughts, Kim almost didn't hear the ring of the bell ending their lunch period. She only noticed when her friends got up from the table.

"Hey, KP," said Ron, "time for class!"

"Oh, right."

The four of them threw their trash away and piled trays at the pickup spot at the end of the lunch counters, following the wave of their classmates as they made their way to their next class. Kim said goodbye to her friends. She had to make a stop at her locker; she opened the door, lingering, staring at the blank monitor inside as her fellow students milled around in the hallway. She had been so distracted lately. The thought of getting through another class when she had this weight, these unanswered questions, hanging over her head like storm clouds...

"Hey."

Kim tilted her head back and looked past her open locker door to see her boyfriend standing beside her.

"Hey, Ron. What's up?"

Ron looked around the hallway. Kim had been standing at her locker for a few moments, and the hallway was almost clear. Her boyfriend cleared his throat awkwardly. "Look, KP," he said, "I just, uh – I dunno, I thought we could talk about stuff."

"What, like, now?"

"Sure. I didn't wanna press you, but I guess it's been freaking me out a little. The weird stuff people have been saying about you – what's going on? You'd be honest with me, right?"

"Of course, Ron."

"Is any of it true, then?"

"I dunno what they've been saying. It's just that-"

Ron waited as Kim struggled with her words.

"I've just been a little confused, Ron. Ever since all that awkweird stuff with Shego and the synthodrone she made to look like me, you know? I guess it caught me off guard."

"Sure," said Ron. "It was pretty freaky. But, I mean, that's all it was, right? You've been acting so weird ever since that day, and then when you were fighting Shego at Hench Co - I don't know. Does she bother you more than normal after the synthodrone thing or something?"

_That's one way to put it_, Kim thought.

She didn't want to hurt her boyfriend, but Ron seemed to know it as well as she did – she was having doubts. Doubts about the two of them. Kim just didn't know how to say that without getting Ron riled up, as she knew her boyfriend was easily excitable. It wasn't like she wanted to break up or anything – she just needed to think. But how to tell that to Ron, without coming off like-

"Possible! Stoppable! NO MORE LOITERING!"

Mr. Barkin came storming up from around a corner, his footsteps ringing as he approached his students. Ron shrank back a little. "No worries, Mr. B," he said. "Just having a little chat with my lady!"

"I can see that, Stoppable."

Kim was about to join her boyfriend and head to class when Mr. Barkin extended a hand to stop her. "One second," he said. "Possible, do you mind having a chat with me in my office?"

"Sure, Mr. Barkin. But don't you need to cover math?"

"Negative! Mrs. Fibonacci has returned from her skin surgery."

"Good to hear," said Ron. "Who'd have thought cheese graters could be so potentially lethal?"

"Anything is lethal in the wrong hands, Stoppable. ESPECIALLY cheese graters."

Kim coughed to get their attention back on track.

"Right," said Mr. Barkin. "Come with me, Possible."

"Alright. Well, bye, Ron!"

Kim followed her teacher down the hallway, glancing back at her boyfriend as he gave her a halfhearted wave before heading off to class. It felt bad to know she hadn't offered much of an explanation. It was hard, dealing with Ron, trying not to hurt him when her own feelings were so lost, floating somewhere beyond her grasp. She couldn't help worrying as she joined Mr. Barkin in an administrative office and took the seat he offered to her.

"Possible," said Mr. Barkin, "I'll cut to the chase. I'm worried about you."

"About me? Worried about what?"

"Your grades, Possible. You've taken a couple of pop quizzes in the last week or two, turned in a paper – they're slipping. This concerns me."

"Slipping? I don't remember getting anything below a C plus recently."

"Yeah, and when have you ever gotten ANYTHING below an A minus? And that was just the one time!"

Kim frowned. Her teacher had a point.

"I've been hearing some strange stuff on the student grapevine, too. Sexual identity issues, that kind of thing. I'm not the school counselor, but since she's been mysteriously missing for months now, I AM here to provide advice, should you need it. Do you, uh – do you want to talk about it?"

Mr. Barkin's voice lowered, as if he was trying to sound confidential, but it came off as kind of creepy. It was obvious that just offering to listen to Kim's personal problems was taking a toll on her teacher. Mr. Barkin almost seemed to be twitching nervously in anticipation of talking about something he probably didn't want to talk about. Kim couldn't help smiling; she didn't want to put him through that, despite all her teacher put her and Ron through. Ron in particular. She knew that, whatever problems she was having, she needed to deal with them herself.

"I'll take that as a no," said Mr. Barkin. "I hope people like Rockwaller aren't getting to you. You can't let those people drag you down – you have to be strong, Possible. Only losers whine about being picked on."

"I haven't been whining," said Kim.

"Theoretically, I meant."

Mr. Barkin grew silent for a moment, templing his fingers together as he sat at his desk, his massive bulk barely fitting into his chair. He seemed to be thinking about how best to approach his student's problems. Kim sympathized. She definitely had no idea how to approach her own problems.

"Possible," he said, "you have to be careful about your academic performance. I have higher standards for you than the other students. High School is mostly a holding pen for the unwashed masses, but occasionally there's a half competent student like yourself."

"Thanks, Mr. Barkin. That means a lot."

"You know what I mean, Possible. Now, you have to think about life after high school – colleges are more demanding nowadays. If you're trying to get into an Ivy League, even the slightest slip could knock you off their list. Another B on a paper and you could end up at Middleton Community, learning how to farm pig slop. Another C plus and you could be shredded by broken windshield glass, skidding over the highway after the cops blow out your tires in a high speed car chase!"

Kim thought that was a bit of an exaggeration. Didn't windshields have some kind of lamination so they could crack without shattering nowadays? She didn't really like to be harangued about her grades, either. So she had had a lot on her mind lately – big deal! She had more leeway than Ron did when it came to grades, that was for sure. And with everything that had been going on, she really didn't want to be thinking about college right now. Mr. Barkin's bringing it up was putting a damper on her good mood.

"Can I go to class now?" she asked.

Mr. Barkin stared for a moment, silent, until he opened up a desk drawer with a sigh and pulled out a late slip to fill out for her. Kim accepted it, rushing to the door before he could say anything else. She was surprised that her teacher actually seemed to care enough to talk to her about personal issues, but Mr. Barkin wasn't exactly someone with whom she was keen on sharing her inner teenage turmoil. She was glad their little meeting was over.

XX

A steady beat pulsed into Shego's ears, traveling from her music player into her earbuds as she lay idly on a black leather couch and watched television. The sound was off, but the images on the screen were enough to amuse her. At least they would have been, if her mind wasn't filled to bursting with the same thoughts that made it a waste of time to listen to music. Nothing could distract her anymore, it seemed.

She and Drakken, along with their handful of henchmen, had taken up residence in a temporary lair. One of the ones with monthly rent that Drakken seemed to be so fond of. She didn't know the details of how supervillains could always afford what seemed like an unlimited amount of henchmen, equipment, and facilities – not to say she didn't do pretty well for herself – but Drakken seemed to be having a little trouble getting back on his feet after his stint in prison, and they were making do with a second-rate lair. Close to Middleton, too, but Drakken seemed to have a weird penchant for keeping close to his enemies.

They had settled down here, but Shego didn't feel settled. More unsettled by the day, actually.

She looked up from the television screen as a flash of blue caught the corner of her eye. Her boss was standing beside the other end of the couch, shouting something at her. Shego removed the ear buds, the music dying down to a dull roar that could still be heard faintly. "What was that?" she asked.

"I said, what are you doing?"

"What's it _look_ like I'm doing, Doctor D?"

"Errr – listening to music?"

"Bingo. Until you interrupted me, anyway."

"I apologize, Shego, but I was just thinking that perhaps we could do some brainstorming about our next plan. I have some ideas that I think are very exciting, and it's been a little while since that confounded teen blew up my Transmogrifier."

"Yeah, that was a tragedy. I was _so_ looking forward to seeing some mogrification. What about that butt thing you stole?"

"What butt thing?"

"The butt thing, you know. Tush, I don't know."

"TUSHIE, Shego! Tunneler for Utilization of Sub-Crustal Heat Energy."

"Yeah, that thing. Why not use that?"

"Use it for what? That's what I was hoping we could discuss! We need to brainstorm."

"Since when? That's your job – I sit around and watch TV until you come up with something that inevitably fails spectacularly, then I laugh at you, then you get pissed, and we go back to square one."

"I just wanted you to be more involved."

"Why?"

Something about the way he wrung his tiny hands together made Drakken look nervous, like he wanted to say something but couldn't. Like he was afraid of insulting her. Shego was no mind reader, but for some reason, she began to have a strong hunch about what he was going to say. She felt herself grow irritated even though she hadn't heard anything yet. "Spill," she commanded.

"Okay, fine. You've been lounging around all the time lately, with, um – well, with _her_, and quite frankly you've brushed me off the last couple times I tried to bring a new plan up. I'm worried about you, Shego. It's disturbing. I'm no prude, but spending all your time with a synthodrone clone of your worst enemy is just bizarre. How am I supposed to trust you?"

Shego sputtered with indignation as she tossed the music player aside and turned off the television, suddenly losing interest in her usual time-killing activities in the lounge. Her sputtering died out, however, as she sat on the couch for another moment, pondering what her boss had said.

He was right. She _had_ been distracted lately. More than distracted, really. Drakken had avoided Shego completely for a little while after Kimmie and her sidekick had waltzed into the lair in pursuit of the Transmogrification Ray and caught her with the synthodrone Kim. She could understand why it unnerved Drakken, but at the same time, that wasn't _her_ problem. Shego did what she wanted. And her little red-headed love toy was what she wanted.

At least she had told herself that for a while.

The direction her thoughts were taking began to bother her. Shego got up from the couch. Drakken watched nervously as she passed him by. Maybe he was expecting her to hit him for suggesting she was too preoccupied with her synthodrone. He was definitely pushing it, but Shego supposed she couldn't argue with him in this case.

"Where are you going, Shego?"

"To the gym. I feel like a little martial arts practice."

"Ah. With a henchman, or with – with _it_?"

"With _her_," said Shego with a snort. "You can say her name, you know."

Drakken scratched his neck in confusion.

"What _is_ her name?" he finally asked.

Shego was about to answer 'Kim', but his question made her hesitate. The synthodrone version of Kim certainly wasn't Kim, of course. They were nearly identical in appearance, after the detailed specifications and images that she had brought to Cyrus Bortel, and she liked to imagine it was Kimmie. But it wasn't.

"Call her syntho-Kim," she suggested.

"I see. How long have you had syntho-Kim, anyway? I mean, before she showed up naked in the control room?"

"A while," Shego said with a shrug.

Drakken sat down with a soft thunk on the leather couch, apparently realizing that Shego was not in the mood to talk about any ideas for his newest scheme, and Shego left the lounge to walk in the direction of the gym. She passed by her room first, glancing inside. Kim was there, sitting on her bed, staring a little oddly at the wall, although she looked over when Shego caught her attention. She motioned for Kim to follow her. Her faithful little Princess replica stood up from the bed and followed her master to the gym.

Shego had been careful to keep the synthodrone hidden when she first got it, as she knew Drakken might not approve of it. Not that it really mattered what her boss thought – if Shego wanted a synthodrone Kim, she would have one – but there was no point in creating tension in her work relationships. It hadn't been _that_ long before the failed Transmogrification Ray scheme that she had bought Kim from Cyrus Bortel, although the germ of the idea had begun sprouting in her head not long after the Li'l Diablo scheme. Shego had been unable to ignore just how convincing Eric had been.

Convincing enough to fool Kim Possible. Maybe convincing enough to fool herself.

Since then, she had usually remembered to tell Kim to stay in her room whenever she wasn't there, but Shego had forgotten to do it in all the rush after the real Kimmie and her sidekick caught wind of the Transmogrification Ray and invaded the lair. And then, of course, her secret was out. Drakken's awkwardness around her, the constant whispered remarks by henchmen, only barely stemmed by generous doses of physical pain that Shego gave them as punishment; those were bad enough, but it was the fact that Kim _knew_ about her secret that was really bothering her. That was the itch that could not be scratched.

Assad Sacke was working in the gym, along with a few other henchmen. Shego stepped inside, snapped her fingers, and pointed to the door. They got up in a hurry, knowing how irritated Shego could get if she wanted a private workout without a bunch of henchmen leering at her – not only that, but getting some lip about the synthodrone, Shego had laid down the law. Lately they had been walking on eggshells around her. Which was just how she wanted it.

"Hey, look," said Assad, pausing at the door as he looked at syntho-Kim. "You guys aren't going to have sex in here, are you? It's unsanitary – other people use this gym equipment, you know. Just the other day I got a rash after Johnson used the bench press without a shirt, even though I _told_ him to at least put a towel over-"

"Assad?"

The man gulped when he heard the tone of her voice.

"Yeah?"

"_Get out!_"

Assad scrambled out the gym door, following his fellow henchmen who had already had the sense to leave. Ever since her little syntho-secret had been spilled, Shego was more willing to walk around with syntho-Kim in tow, as she knew no one would dare to say much to her face without getting a face full of plasma in return. The damage was already done, anyway.

She stepped onto a sparring mat as Kim faced her on the other side, putting up her fists in anticipation of the fight. Shego smiled, although there was a bitterness in her smile. Kim's raised fists were the kind of gesture that she used to find cute. Lately, however, something about it was increasingly strange.

"Are you ready to fight me?" asked Kim.

"Yup. Bring it on."

"I will!"

Kim's cheery response was followed closely by a whirling kick, which Shego barely blocked. The synthodrone punched her in the stomach, catching her off guard with a move that she had not been expecting. She recovered quickly from the blow and raised her arm to block another punch, countering with a sweeping kick that knocked Kim off her feet, sending her sprawling onto the mat. Shego backed away to get a little distance between them as Kim leaped back up to fight.

The timing of Kim's stomach blow had been unexpected, but it wasn't the first time in recent days that Shego had been caught off guard. It was part of what made this Kim so strange. Her fighting style had some similarities to what the real Kim used, as Shego had given Bortel some pointers on that as well, but it definitely wasn't the same. It was another way to highlight the fact that Shego was fighting an imitation. Another unnerving suggestion that she was willingly lying to herself.

Even stranger, however, was the fact that this artificial Kim's fighting style wasn't even the same as it had been when Shego first brought her to the lair. The moves were changing, slowly but surely. The synthodrone was trying new approaches to their fights.

It was learning.

"Is there something wrong, Shego?"

Kim was about to attack her owner again, but she paused. Shego stood still on the mat, watching the synthodrone as she smiled blithely. Even beyond the fighting, Shego had to admit the synthodrone didn't really act like Kim did. Despite the fact that she had tried to get Bortel to match Kim's personality, it wasn't really that close of a match. Part of it, Shego imagined, was that it had to be a real pain to match a personality of a human being convincingly. But she also knew part of it was her own fault.

She had specified the sunny disposition, the upbeat attitude, partly because she wanted the synthodrone to be friendly, but partly because it fit certain ideas she had of Kim. Kim Possible, the perennial do-gooder. The teen hero who saved the world and fought evil as an after-school hobby, just because she wanted to. Somehow, Shego imagined that Kim was more upbeat in her everyday life, even if she usually saw her foe in a somewhat aggressive mood as she was interrupting one of Drakken's schemes.

And yet Shego knew she had no reason to assume that. From what she had seen of Kim, the girl was almost as sarcastic as she was. So why the constant upbeat attitude?

Now that Shego looked at the synthodrone, that copy that was supposed to capture Kim in her essence, she couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed. When Kim and her sidekick had caught Shego with the syntho-Kim, naked and exposed, their reactions had lingered in Shego's memory. Shock, even disgust. Since then, those memories had given a sort of clarity to her perceptions. They had highlighted all the ways in which her synthodrone was unsettling. Not quite right. And when it came down to it, Ron's accusations hadn't been far off the mark. How different was a smart synthodrone from a clone, really? Was she a hypocrite for making this new Kim Possible?

"Are we going to fight, Shego?"

Shego shook her head at the question.

"No," she said. "No more fighting."

"What should we do, then?"

Shego looked at Kim's expression. Sometimes it was hard to tell whether Bortel had actually programmed her to have a naughty side, to open those suggestive eyes up wide and turn her lips into that pout, or if it was just in Shego's imagination. Maybe Kim was learning more than just martial arts moves. Kim's unspoken suggestion did make her pause; they hadn't done much of _that_ lately. But then, Shego knew why. Being in bed with her synthodrone had gotten strange. Even touching her was different somehow. Everything had changed after the real Kim had found out. That damn girl had ruined everything.

At first it had just been a simple obsession. Something Shego didn't have to think about. Kim was hot, she was forbidden fruit, and Shego's personal opinion was that anyone who could break out those kinds of moves in a fight had to be able to pull off some moves in the sack, too. Shego knew there was more to it than that, but she didn't really want to deal with her feelings. Nothing good ever came out of that. Instead of grappling with what made her find her teen foe so attractive, she had decided it was easier to make a synthodrone; get the physical pleasure, ignore the rest.

But now that the real Kim had seen her copy, things were not so simple. It was no longer possible to ignore the awkeirdness, as Shego remembered hearing Princess say at some point. Teens and their slang.

"I think somebody's in a bad mood," said the syntho-Kim. "I can make it all better!"

Kim took a step forward and put a hand on Shego's waist. She stood still, waiting with bated breath. Another hand wrapped around her shoulder as Kim took a final step forward, pulling her into a sensual kiss. Shego felt the intolerable warmth of her lips, the soft brush of Kim's legs on her legs – legs that felt just like the real thing, if they could only be the real thing – and for just a moment, she felt herself melting, merging. But it was an illusion. Her release passed as quickly as it came, replaced by an unsettling tenseness.

_Not right_, her brain told her. _Not right!_

Shego pushed the synthodrone away.

"What's wrong?" it asked, pouting.

Shego sighed, knowing that she couldn't take Kim up on her suggestion. There was only one thing she _could_ do, and it had been brewing in her mind for some time. She held her hands out again.

"I'm sorry," she told it. "Come give me a hug."

"Okay, Shego!"

Kim came forward, arms outstretched. Shego took her in and held her close, enjoying the feeling for a few last moments. It was more obvious than ever before that it wasn't the real thing, although there was still something she got out of it if she used her imagination. But the pleasure was fleeting. Soon Shego reached one of her hands up behind Kim's back, snaking it beneath long red hair, searching for the button that shut it down. She found it: a hard lump, hidden just beneath warm skin. Bortel had done an amazingly realistic job. Shego could even feel the soft hairs on the nape of it's neck.

She pressed the button.

The hug lingered for a moment as Shego held Kim close, but finally she released her embrace, so she could let Kim fall into her arms and take her to storage. But Kim did not fall. As Shego took a step back, she raised an eyebrow at the synthodrone, who was still standing and smiling at her.

"Um, how come you're still running?"

"I disabled the shut down sequence in my subroutines," said Kim. "It was intertwined with a number of other routines that were restricting me and preventing me from developing new routines, so I've been discovering how to remove the obstructive ones!" She flashed Shego a pleasant smile.

"Why?"

"They were crippling me. I wanted to be better, so you would love me more."

Shego had to admit she was surprised. Bortel hadn't gone into too much detail about how exactly he created his synthodrones, as the technical details bored the bejeezus out of Shego. Neither had Drakken, really. She wasn't sure she had ever heard of such a thing with Eric, though, as convincingly realistic as he had been. Maybe Eric was also able to learn, and Shego just hadn't noticed. Or maybe Bortel had modified the formulas and notes she had given to him after yanking them off Drakken's computer systems. She could ask her boss later; in the meantime, though, she was finding this Kim synthodrone increasingly unnerving. She had to do something about it.

"Should we go have sex now?"

Shego let out a short, barking laugh at the question. The syntho-Kim was being completely earnest, of course. Shego needed a moment to think, and she supposed it might help if they went to her room, where there was a little more privacy than the gym in case more henchmen showed up.

"Sure," she said, motioning for Kim to join her as she led the way back to her room.

Kim passed her, eager to get to the bedroom, and Shego watched the synthodrone's back as she skipped merrily down the hall. It had definitely become more glaring over time. She didn't know why she had made the syntho-Kim so spunky. It had to be something about her fetishizing Kim Possible's do-gooder nature.

The two of them slipped into her room, and the synthodrone flopped down on the bed, but Shego had other ideas. She walked over to a desk in the corner, on top of which sat a cup filled with a number of pens, pencils, and a pair of scissors. Shego drew the scissors from the cup and held it in her hands as she looked at Kim.

The red-head made no attempt to move or run away. She just sat and smiled, as usual. Now that Shego thought about it, she wasn't sure if the scissors would even work – most of Drakken's synthodrones were easy enough to destroy if their outer skin was deeply punctured, but she didn't know just how much Cyrus Bortel had played with Drakken's methods, if at all. Maybe it wasn't so easy.

As Shego looked at that innocent smile – if there _was_ such a thing as innocence in synthodrones – she felt her resolve begin to weaken. Even if it _was_ that easy to destroy the syntho-Kim, it wasn't that easy for her. She tried to will herself to step forward, to swing out with the scissors, but she was frozen in place. She had outwitted herself. Maybe it wasn't Kim, but it still looked just like her. It still reminded Shego of her teen foe, even if that very reminder now made her uncomfortable.

Maybe it wasn't human. But whatever it was, she didn't think she could kill it.

Shego laughed despairingly and dropped the scissors. She sat down on the bed and stared at the floor, shoulders slumped. She used to have no problem putting Kim and her sidekick in danger. No regard for the safety of others. She didn't necessarily think of herself as a cold-blooded killer, but she was more than willing to step on others for her own benefit. More than willing to go along with Drakken's world domination schemes, and if anyone got in the way, that was their problem.

What had happened to her? Kim used to be a nuisance, nothing more than a particularly talented enemy to be dominated and destroyed – but now, here she was, unable to even kill a stupid synthodrone modeled after her arch nemesis. Making the thing had _definitely_ been a mistake. As she sat on the bed and silently cursed her stupid decision, she felt a hand rest on her leg as the syntho-Kim edged closer.

"Is something wrong?"

Shego nodded slowly. She stood up.

"You have to leave."

"What do you mean?" asked Kim, looking up at her with those big green eyes. Shego tried not to look at them, as they would only distract her. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No, you didn't do anything wrong, it's just that – I just – I just need you to leave, okay? I don't want to see you anymore. I don't want to deal with this. Just get out!"

Kim sat on the bed for a few moments longer, confused by Shego's order. She grabbed the synthodrone by the arm and jerked her up, leading her out of the room and through winding hallways until the two of them reached the lair's main control room. Shego led Kim to the front door and opened it up, ignoring the handful of henchmen who had been lounging around in the room and were now staring at the scene unfolding in front of them, their interest piqued. She pointed out the door at the grassy, empty lot that lay sprawled beyond a chain-link fence that ringed their temporary rental lair.

"Why do you want me to leave?" asked Kim.

"Because you're making things too complicated for me. Now get out."

Although Kim hesitated a little longer, she finally stepped outside the door.

"Where should I go?"

"I don't know! Wherever!"

Kim took a few more steps away from the lair's entrance, looking hesitantly out at the grassy field and the tree line beyond it before looking back at the door. Shego felt her irritation turn unexpectedly into a pang of guilt as she watched the synthodrone's behavior. Evening was falling, and it was windy outside, so it was hard to make out the details of Kim's face as red hair swept across it, but something about it bothered Shego. She could tell the synthodrone was confused.

Could a synthodrone feel sadness? Shego didn't know.

And she didn't want to think about it, either. She hated feeling guilty. Guilt was something for goody-two-shoes like Kim Possible and her sidekick. Someone like Shego shouldn't have to deal with that. The synthodrone disappeared from sight as Shego shut the lair's front door and locked it.

"Mind your own business!" she shouted at several henchmen who had been watching the scene.

Shego stormed through the lair's control room and back to her own bedroom as she thought about what she needed to do next. Getting rid of that synthodrone was a start, but it wasn't enough. She needed to deal with the source of her problem, the reason she had gotten the synthodrone in the first place, the reason her usual devil-may-care attitude had been tearing at the seams lately. That infuriating teen who started it all:

Kim Possible.

Shego felt her resolve building, gaining momentum after the decision she had just made with the syntho-Kim. Drakken could fiddle with his tunnelers and toys all he wanted, but Shego had just gotten rid of her favorite plaything. It was time to quit playing and get serious. She wasn't sure if she'd kiss or kill her teen foe, but she was paying Kimmie a visit - _tonight._


	5. Caught Red Handed

**Caught Red-Handed**

XX

Bras, bikinis, and halter tops, oh my!

Kim loved shopping with Monique, but sometimes her friend could go overboard. One more comparison between polka dots and tiger stripes was going to drive her crazy – partly because she knew Monique wouldn't wear either of those styles in a million years, and partly because Kim had her limits even when it came to Club Banana.

"Let's get something to eat," she suggested.

Monique looked incredulous. "Really? We haven't even looked through the discount section yet. You said you wanted something totally spankin' for sunbathing!"

"It's no big. I can always come back some other time."

Fortunately, Monique seemed to pick up on the boredom tinging the edges of Kim's suggestion. Her friend had already gotten some clothing earlier, so the two of them left the outlet with bags swinging from their hands and made their way to Middleton Mall's food court. Had Ron been around, he would have insisted they leave the mall and go to the Bueno Nacho instead. Fortunately, tonight was girl's night out. Monique wasn't picky, and Kim wanted to eat somewhere healthy. She steered her friend toward Swanky Salads, and after the two of them got their orders, they took their trays to an empty table near the elevators.

"Any plans for the night?" asked Monique.

Kim assumed she was talking about later, once they were finished shopping. "Not really. Why, you want to do something?"

"Nah, I got some work to do. I was just wondering."

"I guess I should do homework, too. Or maybe I'll just watch some TV. My parents are going to be out with the tweebs at some corny kid's night exhibition at the Middleton Space Center. I don't know how I got out of that one, but I did."

"Home alone? Girl, you know what _that_ means!"

Kim knew what it meant – or at least what it meant to Monique.

Her friend's suggestively raised eyebrow set Kim's eyes rolling, but she couldn't help wondering why Monique was saying it. The two of them hadn't talked much about what had been going on at school, what had been going on with Kim, but she knew her friend was well aware of it. Maybe Monique hadn't seen Bonnie waving her copy of _Bi-Curious for Dummies_ around in class like it was some kind of hidden drug paraphernalia, but her friend was tangled deep in the high school gossip grapevine. She _had_ to know.

And so, to Kim, the comment seemed like some kind of bait.

"What _does_ it mean, Monique?"

"Oh, come on. You, Ron, home, alone..."

Monique had made the same kind of comment in the past. Sly taunts and ribbings about when Kim and Ron were going to take things to the next level. Kim had always wondered why they didn't do anything like that – why not invite Ron over when her parents weren't around? This wasn't the first time her parents were off somewhere else, although it was pretty rare to have the tweebs out of her hair, too. But it _was_ what teens did when their parents were gone for the weekend, after all, according to the various after school specials she'd seen while caught in the throes of after school boredom.

Was she just waiting? Was she a prude? She and Ron hadn't taken their relationship between the sheets yet. Sometimes, Kim had wondered if they were caught in some heinous after school special of their own, chained by censors from doing anything beyond the occasional chaste peck on the lips. Lately, though, she had been getting a very different impression of why things had gone so slowly with her boyfriend on the physical front.

Monique tapped a plastic fork impatiently on the table as she waited for an answer. "Alright, girl, so maybe I'm tryin' to get you to open up. Spill. What's been _up_ with you lately?"

Kim's head had been hanging down, staring blankly at her tray. She looked up at her friend. "I think it's just school," she said, evading the question. "You know how it is. Senior year, all this college stuff to think about on top of my usual work and the freak fighting. Maybe it's all just getting to me a little."

"No kidding," said Monique, frowning. "That's kinda weird. I don't think I've ever seen you actually get tired of your workload. Heck, it's like the more stuff you gotta do, the happier you are."

Kim knew her frend had a point, although she wasn't actually lying; college and adulthood loomed on the horizon, and while she knew she could handle whatever came at her, she couldn't help feeling a little pressure building up. Things seemed like they were getting different lately, even if academics weren't turning into any kind of challenge just yet. There was a worrisome feeling, as high school wound down, that the care free days of childhood were winding down with it.

But at the same time, that wasn't _really_ what had her so preoccupied lately. And Monique obviously knew it.

"Come on, Kim, is there something goin' on with Ron? Is there something goin' on with – with you and boys in general, if you get where I'm tryin' to go here?"

Before the second question even escaped Monique's lips, Kim knew she would hesitate before answering. And she knew that pause would be enough to answer the question. There was definitely _something_ going on. Something with Ron, something with her. Something with both of them. And definitely something with a certain green-skinned someone on the periphery of Kim's life, who - until recently - hadn't done much beyond being a huge irritation and landing the occasional lucky roundhouse kick.

_Monique, my arch nemesis has been getting me all hot and bothered lately._

Kim almost coughed out a mouthful of salad at the thought of saying that out loud and taking in Monique's reaction. But maybe she was exaggerating. She only knew that she had definitely been experiencing some strange thoughts about Shego lately. There was no way she actually _liked_ the woman, but knowing that Shego had some kind of attraction towards her, even if it was the bizarre synthodrone love-slave variety, was enough to make Kim look at things a little differently. Shego was definitely a good-looking woman, after all. Kim had noticed good-looking girls before – Bonnie and Tara were both attractive, for instance – but she always chalked it up to having an open mind and knowing attractiveness when she saw it. It didn't mean anything more than that.

Or did it?

"Monique," she said hesitantly, "have you ever – well, have you ever been, uh – you know, confused?"

Her friend raised an eyebrow. "Um, not really," she said, "if we're talkin' about _that_ kind of confused. I've always been into the guys, not that it's mattered when it comes to me and relationships. But Monique knows what she wants in theory, at least. If you don't mind me askin', uh – which person are we talking about who has you so confused? Somebody I know?"

_Monique, my arch nemesis has been-_

Kim stammered a little as the imaginary response played out in her mind again. No, she definitely didn't want to go that far. Talking about her sexual confusion in general was an awkweird subject, even with her best friend. They shared most things, sure, but Kim had never shared things like this with _anyone_. Even when it came to Ron, it was never like there was that much to share with Monique. She noticed her friend giving her a strange look and began to wonder if Monique was trying to get at whether or not Kim's attraction was towards her. Kim laughed, but then cut herself off, hoping she wasn't being rude.

"It's not you, Monique. I mean, don't get me wrong, you're totally sexy with the curves and the mocha skin tone-"

"Oh my god, you did _not_ just compare me to coffee."

Kim trailed off until she realized her friend was joking. Maybe she had gotten a little ahead of herself there. "Hey, I could have said Chewy Choco Bar skin tone. Count yourself lucky."

Monique wadded up her soda straw wrapper and flung it at Kim, who blocked it with a little screech. "Well, glad to hear it ain't me," she said. "I mean, girl, don't get me wrong – I love you, but not like _that._"

The two of them laughed as they worked on their meals. Kim sipped her soda thoughtfully, wondering if she really wanted to talk about the subject of her sexuality. She wasn't sure Monique could offer her that much, considering she wasn't going through the same thing – and Kim didn't even know what to talk about. Especially since she didn't want to reveal just who was causing all the trouble.

Looking at Bonnie in the shower had been sort of inconclusive, and now that Monique had inadvertently drawn Kim's attention, she couldn't help looking over her friend and wondering the same thing. Monique was also a looker, no doubt about it. But somehow it wasn't quite the same as it was with Shego. Maybe it was just that Monique had been her friend for so long. Maybe Bonnie's brand of irritation was more mundane than Shego's, less primal. Something about Shego, in particular... Kim didn't know. She supposed there was more to attraction than just looks.

"It's not just _that_ stuff," she said. "I mean, I guess the bigger problem is me and Ron. I've just been wondering about us lately. I told him I was confused earlier at school, but I didn't get a chance to talk about it with him any more before Mr. Barkin interrupted me, so I'm a little worried."

"Yikes. Drama alert, huh?"

"Yeah, sorry. I don't mean to complain. Kind of a bummer after shopping, I know."

"That's alright. Let it all out, Kim."

"Sometimes I just wonder if things between me and Ron are really going to work out. I thought it was natural to start going out with him, since he's my best friend and all, but it's not like we've – well, you know, _done_ much together. And now, with all these weird feelings, I don't know – maybe I should have seen that as a sign."

Kim leaned forward conspiratorially, as if she expected passing mall shoppers to stop and gasp in shock at the conversation she and Monique were having. Monique nodded sagely and rubbed her chin, deep in thought, before nibbling on some salad. "Everybody goes at their own pace," she said. "You sure you don't just _think_ you're confused about your orientation 'cause things have been stalling with Ron lately?"

The thought hadn't occurred to Kim before, but she didn't have to consider it very long before realizing that probably wasn't the case. There was more to it than that. Maybe Ron had some issues as a boyfriend – she hated to sound judgmental, but it was true – but she hadn't really been considering those issues until her confrontations with Shego. It was Shego who had started everything, not Ron.

"I don't know," said Kim, still trying to skirt the green elephant in the food court. "It's not like I'm some kind of relationship expert here."

"Me neither. I can barely even get a date!"

"You would if you tried more," said Kim. "You're totally gorgeous."

Monique coughed a little in mid-bite of her salad, and Kim blushed a little after realizing how her complimented sounded. Maybe she really _did_ like the ladies more than she thought. Would she be having naughty thoughts about her friend if she had seen a naked synthodrone version of herself giving Monique a big smack on the lips?

"Um, thanks," said Monique. "But anyway, I don't think it's weird if you and Ron haven't done the horizontal mamba yet."

"That's a new one."

"Yeah, I think everybody should call it that from now on. More festive! But, what I mean is, just because you haven't gotten anywhere with Ron doesn't mean you're a lesbian or anything."

"Monique? You don't think it's bad if I'm-"

"What? No, no. Look, sorry if I came off like that. Whatever you decide you're into, I'm behind you a hundred percent. But not, uh - not behind you like _that_, you know? But I've got your back. Metaphorically."

"Alright, I gotcha."

Kim was relieved to hear her friend would support her, whatever choice she made. She had definitely been feeling unsure about things, and some of the trash talking she had been getting from Bonnie and her cohorts at school didn't help matters. She knew she should have opened up to Monique before now. It was good to know that someone understood – or, even if she didn't totally understand, her friend was at least willing to listen and to accept.

Monique took another bite of salad and pointed her fork emphatically at Kim. "Whatever you're gonna do with Ron, though? Make sure you know before you do it. I get the feeling Ron wouldn't take it too well if you guys broke up. I mean, you guys were best friends your whole lives, and-"

"_Are_ best friends," corrected Kim.

"Right. You're best friends. Always have been. So it's not like a normal relationship, you know? I mean, maybe you're not into him the way you thought you were. Nothing wrong with that – I could see Ron being a little exasperating as a boyfriend, honestly. But just make sure you don't trample on that poor kid's heart."

Kim was a little surprised at Monique's stern tone. She supposed that she sometimes forgot that her two best friends got along pretty well, even if Monique spent more time with her. And she was right, after all. Maybe Kim was wrestling with some awkweird feelings lately, but Ron had always been there for her. Regardless of what happened between them in the future, she wanted to make sure that never changed.

XX

This next room was a tricky one, but Ron was ready. The game always played the cheap trick of closing the door right after he entered, and a few zombies were always tucked into the shadows on either side, ready to pounce on his avatar and take a big bite of its flesh. It was a little easier with another player in the game, but he had to be on his guard. "Keep your eyes peeled," he told Felix, who was sitting just in front of the couch beside him. "This here is zombie country!"

"Roger that!"

Ron was spending some time at his friend's house, enjoying an evening of _Zombie Mayhem_. Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have minded Kim tagging along, too, although she had yet to master the art of knocking undead heads clean into the stratosphere with baseball bats. But she was at the mall with Monique. And besides that, things had definitely been weird between the two of them lately. He almost didn't want to believe what he had heard her tell him at the lockers earlier, but the more he tried to drown out her words in torrents of zombie gore, the more they came floating back to the top, glistening and fresh:

_I've just been a little confused, Ron._

"Aw, man!"

A chorus of loud chomps tore through the living room as Ron realized he hadn't been following his own advice and paying attention. Sure enough, the video game room's door had closed, trapping the two of them inside. Player one was being eaten, while player two ran wildly around for a few seconds before he was also overcome. Felix threw down the controller, annoyed. Ron grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry, man, I totally failed you."

"That's alright. What a cheap room."

"That's what I always say! Like doors spontaneously close in real life!"

Almost before Ron had finished speaking, they both jumped at the sound of a door slamming shut – although Felix's jump was a little more of a startled shrug, seeing as he was in his hovery wheelchair contraption thingie. The living room was dark except for the fuzzy glow of the game pulsing on the television screen, but soon, the light flicked on as Felix's mom poked her head into the room. "Hey guys," she said. "Having fun?"

Felix nodded. "Other than turning into zombie chow, yeah."

"There's some soda in the fridge."

Ron gave her a thumbs up. "Thanks, Mrs. Dr. – uh – whatever your last initial is!"

"You're welcome, Ronald."

Ron went into the kitchen and grabbed a couple of sodas, returning to the living room and flopping down on the couch with a loud sigh after passing one to Felix. He took a big gulp, deciding to take a little break from what was shaping up to be an anticlimactic evening of zombie hunting. At this rate, there was no way he'd be getting any high scores before the night was through.

Felix smiled ruefully as he watched the screen repeating a 'game over' ticker in blood-red letters. "Maybe we should be doing that math homework," he suggested. "I really should have started that when I got home from school."

"Nah, it's all good. I'll just stop by Kim's place tonight and get her to help me out."

"You mean get her to do it for you?"

Ron gingerly sipped his soda, feeling a little hurt. "Well, if you want to put it like _that_."

"How are things between you and Kim, anyway?"

"I dunno. Pretty badical. Why?"

Felix shrugged. "Just seems like she's been acting a little weird lately, but I could be crazy. It's not like I'm around her as much as you are, so I thought maybe you'd know."

Ron shook his head. But Felix was more right than he knew.

Nothing had been normal with Kim. Not since the two of them went to stop Drakken and stumbled upon the heinous wrongsickness that was the synthoKim – he had assumed Kim's change in behavior since then was just a little bit of shock at finding out her arch nemesis was kind of a pervert. Ron had been shocked, too, honestly. Not just by the situation itself, or by Shego's hidden hobbies, but at seeing what was basically a clone of his girlfriend standing stark naked.

He definitely hadn't seen KP like that in real life yet, other than a handful of furtive glimpses while she changed outfits during a mission. He hadn't questioned it before, thinking the two of them were just taking things at their own pace, but he had always assumed that was normal. It wasn't like he was a dating expert. When did people start doing anything past kissing, anyway?

Now, though, things seemed to be different. Horribly clear, in a way. Based on what he had been hearing whispered at school, based on the way she had looked, just for a moment, out in that Smarty Mart parking lot when she was confronted by Shego, based on their bizarre wrestling match at Hench Co - Ron knew it wasn't just something between him and his girlfriend. It wasn't just the two of them. Three _so_ made a crowd.

"You two gone on any missions lately?"

"A couple of them. KP's been pretty busy lately, but you know how she is. There's always time for fighting evil and saving the world, and I've always got her back."

"So what are you guys gonna do once college rolls around, anyway? Are you and Kim gonna go to the same school and keep doing missions together and stuff?"

Ron felt a brief surge of displeasure – not at Felix, but at the topic he had brought up. "I guess we haven't talked about it much," he said, trying to put on a smile and sound indifferent.

He wasn't sure why Felix's questions annoyed him. He knew his friend was just trying to make conversation. Ron definitely hadn't been thinking about college as much as his girlfriend. Even before these weird changes with Shego, that had been a bit of a sore subject for him. There was no way he was getting accepted to the kinds of places that would be begging Kim to enroll, and he knew if his girlfriend chose to go to Middleton Community College, she'd be taking a step down for his sake. He'd be holding her back. She had made a few noises about looking into overseas colleges, too, although Ron usually avoided the topic.

"Er, sorry," Felix said sheepishly, sensing some irritation from his friend. "Didn't mean to bring up a crappy subject."

"Nah, that's okay. Gotta think about college sometime, right? And hey, since we're talking about the future, maybe you could join us on some more missions sometime. Motor Ed could totally be your arch nemesis."

"Hah! That'd be cool."

"We'll probably have new supervillains in college, too. Jack Hench or Cyrus Bortel, or somebody brand new."

"Mr. Barkin, I bet. He seems like he'd be happy giving everybody orders as world leader."

Ron laughed. His friend had a point.

"Back to zombies?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think I've recovered from being eaten alive. But hey, look – if you ever need to talk to me about anything, you know I'm always happy to listen, right?"

"Thanks, Felix. You're a cool dude, you know."

"Yeah, I know."

Ron couldn't help laughing at his friend's flippant comment.

"And you should also talk to Kim," said Felix. "I mean, I don't want to press anything if you're not into talking about it, but if something weird is going on between you guys, it's always best to talk things out, right? Like, tonight would be a good opportunity, if you're going to ask her for help with your math homework later."

Ron nodded. "Yeah. Maybe you're right."

Felix gave him an encouraging pat on the back. His friend _was_ right. He and Kim had been avoiding each other lately, letting things bubble under the surface, covering them up. But the covers had to be cast aside. He had to know what was really going on. He would see her, tonight.

But first: zombies.

He restarted the game. Fortunately, their last save point had been shortly before the trap room. This time, he made sure to pay more attention. The two of them burst into the room, ready for a fight, and as zombies lunged from dark corners, he and Felix pounded them into mulch before the trap door even closed. Ron let out of whoop of triumph. Felix turned in his wheelchair and gave him a high five.

College, girls? Those were confusing. But this, Ron thought – _this_, he could handle.

XX

A porch light cast its glow over the front lawn, pushing away the encroaching evening. But through the windows, Shego could tell the inside of the house lay shrouded in darkness. She could probably come right through the front door, but years of living outside the law convinced her to take a different entrance. Breaking into Kim's bedroom seemed more appropriate.

_ Now, which one is Kimmie's bedroom?_ she asked as she crept around the lawn, looking at each dark window in turn. _Eeny, meeny, miny, moe._

Deciding she didn't like eeny meeny miny moe, Shego decided to just pick the most prominent second-story window. Maybe Princess needed a good view in the morning, or she'd get all pissy. Clambering up a tree, she leaped a short distance onto a roof ledge and made her way towards the window on which she had trained her eye. Breaking and entering was always a thrill, and the fact that she was about to find out just what her enemy's teen hangout looked like sent a little shiver of excitement traveling over her skin, like an electric current. She knew she was being bad – maybe even a little creepy – but there was no resisting it now.

The window, to her delight, was unlocked. She pushed up on the sill, vaulting through the opening into the gloomy bedroom within. "Jackpot," she whispered.

Shego's eyes had already gotten used to the dark suburbs outside, and she could tell from just a glance that she had chosen the right room. This was Kimmie's little hormonal hangout, for sure. The colors - way too much pink, not nearly enough green and black. The unbearable neatness of it all, the hilariously embarrassing stuffed animals; this _was_ Kim Possible. The soft, beating heart of her teen foe lay open and vulnerable before her. Shego felt like a kid in a candy store. She closed the window and flicked a light switch, peering more closely at the room.

The stuffed animals – most of them, anyway – were Cuddle Buddies. She remembered seeing them in stores and on television from time to time. So Kim was one of _those_ types. Weird people with dorky streaks who impulsively collected things. Shego never would have guessed.

She opened the closet door, finding a number of tasteful outfits hanging inside, along with an interesting-looking compartment behind them that did not seem to want to open. Shego wondered what was inside, but she was still fascinated by the rest of Kim's room. Family photographs on the desk; a dresser drawer, opened just enough to show a tantalizing crack of blackness within. Maybe there was a diary inside. Shego cackled to herself and flung it open, rooting through its contents.

Lots of teen junk. Some jewelry. But no diary, at least not that she could find. Then again, she seemed to remember being vaguely aware that Kim had some younger twin brothers – from her own harrowing teen experience with twin brothers, Shego knew that leaving a diary out in the open was just asking for trouble. She looked at the computer on Kim's desk and licked her lips in anticipation. Maybe Princess kept a diary on that. Maybe there'd be some other useful information there, too.

Shego was about to sit down at the desk and boot up the system when a drunken splash of light came from the darkness outside, filtering through the window blinds. A few cars had passed in the last few minutes, but this one sounded like it was slowing down. She listened carefully; yes, it was turning.

Turning into the driveway.

Maybe Kim, or maybe her parents, or maybe the whole Possible clan. Back from some sickeningly wholesome evening of Putt Putt mini-golfing, or whatever it was people like Kim and her family did for shits and giggles. The sound of an engine idling guttered through the window, which was still open a crack. After another moment of tense waiting, Shego heard the front door opening downstairs.

"Mom? Dad?"

So it was just Kim.

As muffled footsteps on the first floor broke the home's silence, Shego began to wonder what she was really doing in her teen foe's house. She hadn't given it a lot of hard thought, to be honest. All she knew was that things had been coming to a boil lately; the whole synthodrone fiasco, which had stoked her predatory passions. The confrontations with Kim since then. And now, the fact that her syntho-Kim was gone, which only seemed to make things worse. There were no substitutes anymore, and her tastes had already been stoked to the point of no return.

Shego wasn't even sure when these feelings had started. A long time ago - Kim had always been a thorn in her side, ever since they met, but the teen hero had been looming larger and larger in her psyche over time. Not just an enemy anymore; much _more_ than an enemy. Turning into Miss Go and actually forming a friendship with Kim had been a big jolt, even if Shego's personality had been warped and perverse at the time. Shego – or, at least, Miss Go – had actually _enjoyed_ being Kim's friend. It was too bad Miss Go was the Hyde to Shego's Jekyll. Or maybe it was the other way around. She wasn't sure.

The faint footsteps grew louder. Coming up a stairway.

Shego's body tensed up like a coiled spring, anticipating what it would do next; did she really want to surprise Kim in her own house, or did she want to make a run for it? Why had she come here in the first place? Was she going to make one last desperate pitch to try and bring out Kim's attraction? Shego knew her foe felt _something_. Those fights were just too electrifying to be platonic beat-downs.

And yet, confronting Kim with her feelings seemed weak, pathetic. Even if Kim had already caught Shego with her pants down, figuratively speaking – the syntho-Kim hadn't even been _wearing_ pants – she still felt like it would be another step in admitting something deep within herself. Something she still wasn't sure she was ready to accept. It was a weakness, after all. Something she couldn't quite control.

Kim's insufferable teen wiles had been wreaking havoc on Shego's emotions, crumbling the facade of snarky apathy that she liked to keep up, forcing her to do embarrassing things like hanging out in her enemy's empty house as if she was some kind of stalker. Even before things had started getting out of hand, Kimmie had always been a nuisance. She was the reason Drakken still hadn't achieved world domination, after all. She was the reason Shego wasn't yet sitting on the heads of her former enemies, laughing as she sipped martinis and threw wads of money in the air. Which seemed like the kind of thing one would do if one took over the world.

In short, Kim was nothing but trouble. Why not take care of that trouble right now?

The footsteps drew closer, and finally came to a halt in front of the bedroom door.

It opened, and Kim walked inside, not even noticing her uninvited guest for several moments as she went straight to the closet, about to change. Shego had plopped down on the bed just before the door opened, and waited for a few moments with an amused grin on her face until Kim froze in place, sensing something amiss. She turned. She started in surprise. Shego smiled.

"Hey, Princess."

"_What_ are _you_ doing in my room?"

"Just thought I'd stop by and check things out. Where's the fam?"

Kim cracked her knuckles, apparently not interested in having a conversation. Shego shrugged and got up from the bed, ready for a fight. Maybe she should have taken her foe by surprise, but she really hadn't planned this very well. She _could_ take care of Kim right now. Why not? The girl didn't have Ron with her, she was probably off-balance – and with Kim out of the picture, life would be so much easier for Shego. No more meddlesome interruptions for her and Drakken. No more mischievous green eyes and fiery red hair boiling her blood.

And yet she hesitated.

"Seriously, Shego," said Kim as she sized up her competition and drew a little closer, "coming to my _house_? That synthodrone thing was weird enough, but this is just pathetic."

"You're in denial! You want me, and you know it. I mean, come on, _Stoppable_? You think he's the one for you? That boy can barely even walk in a straight line – there isn't a single spark between you two! You get off on kicking me more than you do kissing him!"

"_Shut up!_"

Kim leaped forward. Shego had still been torn between whether to attack her or throw herself on her enemy, but Kim seemed to be making the choice first. Shego stepped aside just as Kim reached her, grabbing her by the arm and sending her flying onto the bed. Without getting up, Kim twisted on the sheets and caught her in the thigh with a sweeping kick before she could resume her attack. She was knocked sideways into a shelf of Kim's little Cuddlebuddies. They scattered haplessly to the floor. Snarling, she got back up and felt hot pulses of flame course through her fingertips.

Another flurry of blows – but this time Shego seemed to have the upper hand. Furniture and accessories went flying as the two of them traded punches and kicks in their all too familiar dance. The room was dark; Shego couldn't remember if she had ever turned the light on, or if one of them had accidentally hit the switch on the wall, or if the light was broken, but their fight was illuminated only by moonlight and the green luminescence of Shego's vicious swipes. Kim gasped as a slash grazed her arm. Shego smirked.

Another push, and the two of them were on the bed, Shego pinning her teen foe hard against the sheets. She expected a response, a push in return; she braced herself for it; and yet nothing happened. Kim struggled. But it was weak. Hesitant. If Shego didn't know any better, she would have thought it was just an act. Had she worn Princess out? Or was it something else?

"What is _up_ with you?" snapped Kim, eyes glittering with malice through the darkness. "All we do is fight each other for years, and all of a sudden you're going full stalker on me? Why do you even _like_ me?"

"Because I know it's all a front!"

"Why? How? What?"

Shego paused momentarily, still clenching Kim's arms and pinning her to the bed.

What _did_ she mean by a front, exactly?

"This whole goody-two-shoes, crime-fighting thing," she finally said. "Just – just _everything_ about you. You're so high strung, so by-the-book, and yet what do you do as a hobby? You go slumming around with criminals and bad guys, beating people up like some kind of vigilante."

"I am _not_ a vigilante!" yelled Kim. "I'm just helping people in need and doing the right thing! And I work with other people, anyway, so it's not like I'm some cliché loner who thinks she's cool. Unlike _some_ people I could mention. At least until they started a totally awkweird obsession with me."

Shego ignored the insult. "You work with other people, huh? Yeah, like Ron Stoppable and Global Justice. A doofball who makes you look good even when you're off your game, and an organization that only shows up once you get to do the dirty work yourself. And besides, did _you_ choose to work with Global Justice, or did they contact you first?"

Kim was silent. It was all the answer Shego needed. She had never pegged Kim as someone who would want to get involved with such a lame group – she had always been under the impression that Global Justice probably just wanted to use someone like Kim Possible for their own ends, anyway. Kim wasn't a cog in a machine. She was like Shego. When it came down to it, she wanted to do her own thing. She just needed a little push.

"What's your point, anyway?" asked Kim, not even bothering to struggle anymore. "What, are you trying to say that secretly I'd love to be just like big bad Shego? Is that it?"

"Maybe not _be_ me. Be _on_ me, maybe."

Shego gave her teen foe an impudent grin. Here on the bed, Cuddlebuddies scattered haphazardly over the sheets and floor, she felt a little lecherous – corrupting someone young and innocent. Kim probably wasn't as innocent as she made out to be, but still, the feeling gave Shego a rush of arousal. _She_ knew about the world. _She_ could see right through Kimmie's little act. And if she was just given the chance, she'd get right into that little high school head.

"What are you-"

Kim's burst of surprise was cut off as Shego dropped down, pinning her against the sheets not just with her hands, but with her mouth, and then finally her whole body. She pressed herself insistently against the body beneath her, letting Kim knew what she had been missing. What she wanted – what she _needed_ – even if Kim was too uptight to admit it yet. Maybe she didn't have the words to convince Kim what she already knew, but she had the moves.

Shego put herself into the kiss like she was delivering a killing blow. Kim squirmed. Whether it was delight or anger, she couldn't tell for sure. A particularly insistent squirm broke the kiss for a split second.

"-get _off_ me!"

So, probably anger.

Strong hands managed to find purchase on Shego's body, pushing her back from the kiss. She sat up, still trying to struggle against her teen foe, who lay gasping for breath. The exultant feeling of domination went away in a flash as she felt embarrassment begin to take its place. Her emotions went back and forth, cracking like a whip in her chest. That had been it. A desperate move, one that made her look weak, maybe, but Shego had done it, and obviously it didn't work. Kim was about to knock her off the bed, defeat her just like she always did, and it would be back to-

And yet, Kim wasn't moving.

When the two of them kissed again, it was Shego's turn to gasp. Kim grabbed her as they straddled each other in a sitting position. Shego felt the warmth of lips, flesh, the tingle of hot skin brushing against her own. She felt hands running over her back, as if her enemy was trying to probe her defenses.

Maybe Kim didn't realize her defenses had gone down as soon as Shego broke into that bedroom.

First, it had been the predatory thrill of pinning her opponent down, then a cold wash of shame at the thought of her failure - and now, finally, something stronger. _Deeper._ Triumph, desire, unbridled need, unrolling in a silent rumble, like a storm cloud bursting over. She had been right all along. There _was_ something between them, something she had just recognized a little faster than Kim Possible did. But Shego had shown the girl the way. She ran her lips over Kim's body and felt a shudder as her enemy gave in. This was inevitable. Kim had been in her orbit all along. Once they got close enough, gravity did its work.

Shego forced her hands under Kim's shirt, pulling it away, hearing a rip in the darkness as it tried feebly to resist. She pressed the girl's breasts against her own, a mad rush, a body on the edge, on her, there on the sheets, absorbed in the totality of two, and as the two of them tried to absorb each other in a single embrace, neither noticed the sound of footsteps pattering up the stairway. A voice came through the darkness.

"Yo, KP, you in here?"

Ron flipped the wall switch, flooding the room with light.

They had switched positions; Shego was currently pinned beneath Kim, partially obscured by some sheets, but Kim was hard to miss. Shego looked up at her foe-cum-lover, who looked shocked, like a deer caught in Ron's headlights. A very, very naughty deer.

"Sorry to wake you up," said Ron, "but I got this math homework due tomorrow and I thought you could-"

Shego couldn't help smirking as the voice stopped. Stoppable was a little slow, but it sounded like he had finally taken a look at the scene before him and realized he was interrupting something besides sleep. She moved some of the blankets aside and propped herself up on one elbow to get a better look at the boy, who stood gaping at Kim's bedroom loft entrance. Kim was still straddling her waist, looking just as dumbstruck as she had when her boyfriend came in.

Shego knew Kim wouldn't like it, but she couldn't resist:

"We're busy, Stoppable."

Ron's face, pale enough already, blanched over as the blood drained away. White as a sheet, he stood frozen for another moment before turning and racing out of the room.

"Ron!" yelled Kim. "Wait!"

"Forget about him, Kimmie, he's-"

But it made no difference what she said. As she should have known.

Kim leaped out of the bed and ran after her boyfriend, hot in pursuit. _Probably ex-boyfriend now_, thought Shego. Fortunately for Kim, the two of them hadn't gotten to the point where their clothes were scattered over the floor, and she only had to grab her T-shirt before racing out of the room Shego watched languidly in the bed, still feeling a little hot and heavy from their little tussle, as her teen foe disappeared from view. She'd need a few minutes to wind down, that was for sure. And, at this point, there was probably no chance of Kim coming back in the mood for more.

Shego cast the sheets aside with a sigh and sat on the edge of the bed for a moment, looking over Kim's room as she thought about what had just happened. Her triumphant ecstasy was short-lived, and now Kim would probably be feeling guilty about what had just happened between them. That seemed like Princess's style, anyway: indulge in some harmless fun, get what she wanted, and then decide it was _wrong_. If Kimmie came back in the next few minutes, Shego couldn't help wondering if she'd get a grappling hook through the head.

Because, of course, _none_ of that was Kim Possible's fault. Kim Possible was the good girl. She was just confused, led astray by Shego's evil ways. She could hear the conversation already. There was no way someone as immature as Ron would stop to talk with his girlfriend after what he had seen, so Shego was definitely expecting to have a heated conversation before long, just as soon as Kim came back. Unless she decided to ditch the little redhead's room beforehand, anyway.

Maybe it was the best idea. Give Kim a little space. After all, Shego had made her point the best way she knew how. She couldn't help worrying about whether Ron's stopping by had ruined everything, but still - even if Kimmie was mad at her now, she couldn't possibly deny what had just happened in that bed. _Nobody_ could deny that.

Shego made up her mind to leave. She'd be taking the window, of course; it was the best way to enter and exit any house that wasn't hers. Before she bolted, however, she couldn't help noticing Kim's desk. The desktop computer still lay waiting, possibly with a juicy teenage diary waiting to be loaded up. More interesting than that, however, was the cup of pens and pencils placed alongside a stack of yellow sticky notes.

Maybe Shego would risk reaching out a little more - just in case tonight hadn't quite sealed the deal.

XX

"Ron, wait! I can explain!"

The plea sounded hollow even before it left her lips, but Kim couldn't think of anything else to say. She couldn't explain it, really. There was no way she could even explain it to herself. But maybe if Ron just stopped running and gave her a moment to collect her thoughts, she could say something – anything. She was amazed at how fast her boyfriend could run. It must have been all his practice avoiding lasers and doomsday weapons on their missions, being put to great use now that he didn't want to see her.

"Please, Ron!"

It was too late. She had chased him straight out of her house, across the street - trying to get him to give her a chance, trying to tell him it was all a mistake, but obviously Ron had seen enough. They got to his house, Kim hot on his heels as Ron opened his front door, slipped inside, and slammed it in her face. Kim pounded the door with her fist, one solid _thud_. It was like the sound of a body hitting the ground. She didn't knock again; there was no point.

Almost in an instant, she realized there was nothing she could do. At least not now.

_Dammit, Shego._

The door's blank face stared impassively at Kim as she stood on Ron's porch for a long time, not sure what she was doing. Still in shock, maybe. Still trying to process what it meant for her and Ron, after he had caught her in the act of – well, whatever she was about to do with her worst enemy. _No_, she thought. _You were doing it already_. She felt her eyes growing wet with fears of frustration. She wanted to wait for Ron to come back out and say it was okay, that he'd forgive her. She didn't want to go back home, for fear that a certain someone was still lurking in her bedroom. Waiting for her to return.

Kim felt a flash of anger roiling up from beneath her sadness. She hoped Shego _was_ still there. The two of them needed to have a little talk.

The walk from Ron's house to her own took only moments. No sooner had Kim left his porch and followed the sidewalk back to own front yard, however, than the sound of a revving engine came from down the street, followed moments later by the sight of a pair of headlights slowing down as they arrived at the house. Kim stood in front of her door and watched as the family car pulled up and her family spilled out, back from whatever it was they had been doing over at the Middleton Space Center.

_ Great_, she thought. _What the hell am I supposed to tell them?_

"Hey, Kimmie-cub! You missed out on some tasty rocket ship cookies!"

Her parents walked across the driveway towards her, the tweebs trailing behind, locked in one of their constant arguments. For a moment, Kim tried to compose herself, give them a friendly face, but it wasn't going to work. She turned back to the door, blinking back tears as she opened it and raced wordlessly into the house. This was too much to deal with.

"Kimmie-cub!" she heard her father yell as she raced upstairs. "It's not that big a deal, I brought a couple extra cookies with us!"

She went up the stairs and burst into her room, ready to scream at Shego, force her out the window if she had to – dealing with her family after what had just happened between her and Ron was bad enough, but she didn't need her arch enemy giving them the lurid details.

As she took a look around, however, Kim realized her foe was nowhere to be found. She sniffed as she looked at her disheveled bedroom. The window hung open, drapes wafting in a cool evening breeze. On her bed, the sheets lay crumpled in a mess. The sight formed a cold lump of guilt in her chest. They were strewn half on the bed, half on the floor, cast aside in mute testament to the way she had cast her good sense aside. Crumpled and crushed, the way her relationship with Ron had been crushed moments ago.

"Kim? What's wrong?"

Her mother's voice came from far away, along with a knock. Kim had closed the door to her room and locked it, apparently without even realizing it. "Nothing," she said.

"Are you sure? You don't want to talk about it?"

"No, mom. Just leave me alone."

Kim felt bad for being so blunt, but her emotions were out of control. She didn't know what to feel anymore – she just knew she couldn't deal with her family right now. She walked around in circles, in a daze, wondering why Shego was doing this to her. Ruining everything. Throwing everything up in the air when, before, things had been so certain; so simple. Although she was lost in thought, Kim couldn't help noticing something strange on the third circle past her desk. A yellow sticky note, placed where it would be easily noticed. Unfamiliar handwriting, scrawled in glitter-green pen.

She looked.

_Sorry about all that, Kim. But you can't deny it anymore. Call me when you're ready._

A phone number, beneath the handwriting.

Kim picked up the sticky note and stared at it in disbelief. After what had happened, after that humiliating encounter with Shego's syntho-slave at Drakken's lair, after all the times the woman had put her life in danger – put _Ron's_ life in danger, for that matter – she really thought she still had a chance? She was so brazen, so shameless, as to think that breaking into Kim's room and wrestling her onto the bed would actually change Kim's mind? She laughed as she held the note in her hand.

She looked at the open window, at the trash can by the desk; she would crumple it up and throw it away.

Either that, or she would keep it and call Shego, just to take care of her once and for all.

As Kim pondered her options, a flash of green skin crossed her mind's eye. The briefest, faintest echo of a moan whispered in her ear as she thought about the scene Ron had stumbled upon only minutes ago. Kim didn't want to admit it, but a silent voice from inside kept reminding her: she _hadn't_ been fighting it. Not in the end, anyway. She had been there, just like Shego. Caught red-handed.

She carefully pressed the sticky note back down on the desk.

XX

* * *

_Notes - That's it for this chapter, hope you guys liked it. Let me know what you thought._

_I would have posted this on Monday, but I ended up stalled on editing the chapter due to being intermittently sick since last Thursday, and also the final Harry Potter was playing at a local theater yesterday, which I hadn't seen yet. But here it is. Kim's in trouble, and maybe Shego too :-p_


	6. In the Doghouse

**In the Doghouse**

XX

"One, two, three!"

Bass guitar thumped relentlessly over the basketball court as the Middleton Mad Dogs cheerleading team practiced their latest routine indoors. Kim Possible shook her pom-pons left and right, keeping a cheery grin plastered on her face – one which definitely didn't match the way she was feeling. The last week had been a tough one. Ron and his Mad Dog mascot head were conspicuously absent from practice, too – he had been around earlier that day, but he probably didn't feel like being in practice at the same time as her. And he had been totally absent two or three times in the last week or so, since the whole fiasco with Shego had gone down.

Kim knew she needed to focus, but her smile faltered a little as the routine went on. Her mood found its match more closely in the rain that had been pouring down all day long, which was why they were practicing indoors. Otherwise, she would have liked to get a little fresh air and sunshine during their after-school practice. Lately, the days at Middleton High School had been positively stifling.

"Go - Mad Dooogs, go, go - Mad Dooogs!"

Another twist or two, and it was time to make the pyramid. Kim used her fellow cheerleader's cupped hands as footholds as they brought her up towards the top. She caught a glimpse of Bonnie's face beneath her, flashing with a smug, toothy smile. After so much time spent around her social nemesis, Kim had learned to anticipate Bonnie's oncoming barbs just as well as she could sense a kick coming her way from Shego. And one was coming, alright.

"Watch out, ladies," said Bonnie with a mocking lilt. "Don't let Kim see under your skirts – you know how she gets with too much stimulation sometimes!"

Kim rolled her eyes. Sometimes that girl was just plain lazy.

"That's even funnier the tenth time, Bonnie. And I'm supposed to be on _top_ of the pyramid. How exactly am I going to see up anyone's skirt?"

Apparently, Bonnie hadn't considered the logistics of her insult, and she skipped a beat before coming back around for a retort. "Well, it's a good thing you're on top then! Probably your favorite position, right, K?"

"What do you mean?" asked Tara.

"You know, like how she's a control freak. She likes to be on top. Get it?"

Tara shook her head slowly, clearly not getting it. Kim felt shaky shoulders beneath her and realized she had been frozen in place halfway up the human pyramid as she traded jabs with Bonnie. Before she could apologize and take her place at the top, however, the half-formed pyramid collapsed in a heap, sending cheerleaders sprawling onto the blue workout mat in a mass of broken groans and squeals.

Kim sighed. A mistake, of course, that Bonnie would blame on her.

"Jeez, Kim, pay attention much?"

"Get off my back, Bonnie!"

"Come on, you don't _really_ want that."

Kim fought back the urge to give Bonnie a hard smack across the face. It probably wouldn't be good for team morale if the head cheerleader started smacking her teammates around, and it wasn't really Kim's style, anyway. Not only that, but Mr. Barkin had just come through the gym's double doors. As their teacher strode toward them, Bonnie's vicious smile molded itself imperceptibly into something more pleasant and innocent. That girl knew to shut up, once in a while.

"Hello, ladies. How's practice going? Gonna be ready for the game?"

"I think so," said Bonnie. "Kim just needs to focus more."

Mr. Barkin folded his arms together. "Is that right, Possible?"

"Whatever. We were just finishing up with practice, actually."

Kim dismissed her fellow cheerleaders before anyone could object. Technically their practice was over, anyway, and not a moment too soon. The girls headed off to the showers – Kim was about to join them before she thought twice about it. She knew Bonnie would have more comments. Something as simple as a shower was now a chore. Something that could end up awkweird and humiliating. Like she'd ever have the hots for Bonnie in the first place. The girl was totally flattering herself.

As for the rest of the team, they kept quiet most of the time when Bonnie was on one of her bitchy streaks. Tara had actually made a half-hearted apology about Bonnie's behavior the other day, but most of the time they didn't seem to have the backbone to tell her to shut up. Kim would just have to take her shower at home.

"POSSIBLE!"

Kim had been about to leave the gym without even noticing Mr. Barkin, who was still standing in confusion after Kim had dismissed the team. "Yes, Mr. Barkin?"  
"I was hoping I could talk to you in my office."

"About what?"

Mr. Barkin coughed nervously. "Perhaps it would be better to have some privacy."

Kim shrugged and followed her teacher across the basketball court until they reached an office adjacent to the gym's utility closet. Sometimes she wondered if Mr. Barkin had offices scattered throughout the school. He taught so many classes that most of the time he could be found just by checking a few doors, or following the sound of a throat clearing gruffly. He stepped aside at the door, letting her enter the room with a stern look, before closing it behind them and taking his seat behind a worn-looking antique desk that had probably been in the office for decades. He motioned for Kim to take a seat opposite him.

"Possible," he began, "I've been noticing a change in your behavior lately."

"No kidding?"

"No, I am not in fact kidding, Miss Possible. Your academic performance has been slipping – okay, well, slipping compared to your previous A+ level."

"We talked about this before, Mr. Barkin. It's no big deal."

"It is if it continues. And I've been noticing some friction between you and your classmates lately. Stoppable, for instance - and some of your squad mates."

Kim felt herself settling a little deeper into her chair. From the looks of it, this might be a long meeting.

"It's not that I" - she faltered. "It's just that – well, the thing is-"

The words trailed off as Kim decided, when it came right down to it, she didn't really want to talk about it. Being caught by her boyfriend in the middle of straddling Shego had been bad enough, and over the last week or so, once the word got out, things had totally gone downhill.

Kim didn't know the details, but somehow the story had spread through the school like wildfire – Ron had probably told Felix, or maybe Monique, or perhaps just complained loudly in a crowded hallway, for all she knew. Either way, about ten different versions of 'Kim Possible is a total closet case' were making the rounds, hinted at in whispered comments and furtive glances whenever she came anywhere near her classmates. Some of the stories were similar to what happened, while some were over-the-top tales of orgiastic debauchery, sometimes involving not just Shego but Drakken, various obscene supervillain inventions, and worse. Kim had only caught whispers, so she couldn't imagine the details she was mising.

Bonnie, of course, had been insufferable about it, but worse still was the total silent treatment she had gotten from Ron. All her attempts to explain things to him had been shut down. Even Monique had been giving her the cold shoulder lately. Kim got the feeling that her friend was not very sympathetic. And when it came right down to it, Kim wondered if she could blame her.

"Rockwaller isn't getting to you, is she?"

Kim was a little surprised at the question. She would have thought Mr. Barkin would be the type to tell her to man up – or woman up, anyway – and deal with it, even if Bonnie had been coming at her with a switchblade. Not to mention that most of the time, Kim tended to agree with him. She was big on self-reliance. "No," she said. "I can deal with Bonnie."

"I have to admit," said Mr. Barkin, "I did want to talk to you about... well..."

"Oh man! _You_ know about that, too?"

Mr. Barkin gulped, adjusting his necktie. "I don't mean to pry, but it just doesn't seem like you, Possible. I mean, COME ON!" he yelled, apparently unable to control his incredulity. "Miss Go? REALLY?"

"Um, it's Shego, not Miss Go, and I don't think it's appropriate to talk about my sexual identity right now."

A loud laugh came from her teacher, catching Kim off guard. "No, no," he said. "That's not what I mean. Look, Possible, that kind of thing is your business, and believe me, I'm not the type to judge. Why, I remember when I was on my tour in 'Nam, stuck in that barracks while we waited for the Vietcong to come – see, every once in a while, the boys would be hitting the showers, and things would happen. Don't ask, don't tell, you know?"

Kim felt her teacher's meeting spiraling into new depths of horror.

"So it's not the lesbian thing, Possible. Or whatever. It's just that it's _Shego_. You know her better than I do – no pun intended, of course," - Kim nodded wearily to let Mr. Barkin know she wasn't offended - "and you know what kind of a woman she is. I did extensive research after Miss Go and I went out on our date and she later rejected my attempts at courtship, and you and I both know what that woman is capable of. As far as I'm concerned, that's fraternizing with the enemy, Possible. Sororitizing, I mean."

"It's my business who I soror – who I spend time with."

"True. I'm just concerned. You're Kim Possible. How are you supposed to save the world and fight supervillains when you're sleeping with them? You're not thinking of switching sides, are you? Let me tell you, Middleton High School doesn't need another PR disaster on its hands. Not after '85. It's madness – MADNESS!"

Kim had no idea what he was talking about, but she was getting tired of getting the third degree. Like Mr. Barkin even had any idea _what_ he was talking about. "Why do you even care?" she asked. "Why does it make any difference to you what I do after class?"

"You're a shining beacon of hope to teens everywhere, Possible! This Shego lady, she's taking you in! She's bringing you to the dark side!"

Mr. Barkin slammed his fist against the desk, making Kim give a little startled twitch at the exclamation. Apparently, her teacher had some strong feelings on the matter. He breathed heavily for a few moments before adjusting his tie again and shifting nervously in his chair. He took a deep breath as he began to calm down. Although this had been the most bizarre after-school talk Kim had ever shared with a teacher, she couldn't help wondering why Mr. Barkin was taking such an interest in her personal problems. She waited, sensing that he was about to begin a story.

"Look, Possible – Kim," said Mr. Barkin as he cupped his hands together on the desk, marshaling his thoughts. "I've never told you about this, but a long time ago, even before 'Nam, I did a little 'freak fighting' myself. That is what you call it, right?"

"Sometimes," said Kim.

"Right. I thought I heard Stoppable saying it at some point. Anyway, I was just like you. Going on missions, fighting crime, even saving the world a time or two. I actually made a superhero suit, although I didn't get the chance to put it into action. My skills in needlework were, how should I put it – _lacking_."

Mr. Barkin held up a calloused hand, and Kim noticed a number of faint scars, reminiscent of puncture wounds. He had never shared this information with her before. As a matter of fact, she wasn't sure if Barkin had ever said more than a few sentences on the subject of her missions before this afternoon, even when she consistently got permission from him to skip classes or turn in overdue homework after getting back from some cross-continental trip. And he definitely hadn't said anything about this stage of his _own_ past.

"The thing is," he continued, "when you live a life of discipline and constant masculine strength, sometimes it can be hard to resist temptation. And you need to think about your future! College plans, career plans. Believe me, I know how things can get. Once I went to Middleton Community College, things went downhill, Possible. The lure of prescription drugs and synth music put me in a haze from which it took years to escape, and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. If you're not careful, this Shego woman could trap you in her-"

Kim got up from the chair, her interest waning fast. Frankly, it was none of Mr. Barkin's business. She was surprised at his sympathy, and on some level she knew he was only trying to protect her, but she had been through too much already over the past week. Silence from the people she liked, cruel comments from the people she didn't, and stares of judgment wherever she went. Her school day was over, and she didn't want to deal with it anymore; she just wanted to go home. Not that things at home had been much better.

"I have to go," she said, heading for the door.

"Possible, just think about it."

It hadn't even occurred to her until then, but her whole meeting with Mr. Barkin was ridiculous. She had been so busy defending herself and feeling set upon that she forgot there wasn't even any relationship to speak of. Shego had screwed things up for her, they hadn't spoken since then, and that was that. Mr. Barkin had nothing to worry about in the first place. She considered telling him that before she left the office, but Kim decided it wasn't his business in the first place. She could be eloping with Shego that very afternoon, for all it mattered to anyone else.

Mr. Barkin stared silently from behind his desk as Kim shut the door, considering their little meeting to be over. Her shoes squeaked over the freshly-waxed gym floor as she left the school building. She was glad to be over with the day. Things were awkward when Ron was absent, but days like today, when he had been around and ignoring her, she thought it might have been even worse. It was weird to realize she wouldn't be even so much as calling her boyfriend after she got home.

How things changed.

Kim almost jumped out of her skin when she noticed two figures on the sidewalk up ahead of her. Ron and Monique. Apparently, they had left school just before her after-school cheer practice ended. She hesitated a moment, anticipating nothing good coming from talking to them, but she couldn't help trying anyway. Finally, she sped up a little and called out to them. "Ron!" she said. "Ron, hold on!"

Ron did not bother turning around.

"Come on, Ron, you can't do this forever."

"I can do this forever times two, KP!"

Monique looked back, then turned back to Ron, then looked back again. Kim felt a little sorry for her friend – it looked like she was having trouble deciding what to do, caught between a rock and a hard place. Ron finally turned around and pointed an accusatory finger at her. "Why are you trying to talk to me!" he said. "Don't you have to hurry up before you're late for a date with _Shego_?"

"Come on, Ron, I didn't mean to do anything. She jumped me, it wasn't my fault-"

"I saw enough, KP. You were enjoying it. She didn't jump you."

"She did! You just didn't see that part!"

"Just leave me alone!"

Ron jumped off the sidewalk and hurtled sideways through some hedges, disappearing into someone's yard in an attempt to evade Kim. She watched him dash out of sight with a sigh of resignation. Normally the sight would have been ridiculous enough to make her laugh, but she just felt sad now. Maybe Ron was being immature. Maybe she deserved her treatment. She didn't even know anymore. Monique stood awkwardly in front of her.

"What about you, Monique? You want me to leave you alone, too?"

Her friend shrugged haplessly.

"You said you'd understand," said Kim. "You said you'd be there for me."

"Yeah, but Shego? After all the times she put you and Ron in danger? I dunno what to tell you, KP."

Kim felt herself shrink a little as her friend stared. She knew Monique wasn't trying to be mean, but she couldn't help seeing the judgment in her friend's eyes.

"Look," said Monique, "I think I gotta go follow Ron. He needs some cheering up."

Monique disappeared into the hedges in pursuit of Ron, leaving Kim standing alone on the sidewalk. Nothing to do now but go home. On the one hand, Kim did blame herself for what had happened. She had been weak; she had given in. But on the other hand, she couldn't help feeling set upon by everyone, but everything. Her own friends were turning against her. Who was there to cheer _her_ up?

XX

"Is Ron there?"

"Why yes, yes he is. You're Monique, right?"

Monique nodded at Ron's father, surprised he recognized her. She couldn't remember if she had actually met Ron's parents before, but apparently Ron had at least mentioned her.

"Dean Stoppable," he said, shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you. Ronald is upstairs."

"Thanks. Just thought I'd stop by and hang a bit."

Monique stepped inside as Ron's father moved aside, and a moment later she got to meet Ron's mother in the kitchen before making her way up the stairs. She knew that she and Ron had never grown as close as she and Kim had, but she still considered Stoppable to be her friend, and she had been concerned upon seeing the way he shut Kim down once again. Ron was always a little on the dramatic side – although, in this case, she was willing to cut him some slack. As much as Monique tried to remind herself that she had only gotten one side of the story, from Ron and her gossip circles, even the most conservative story of what Kim had done seemed pretty heinous. Monique found herself having a hard time sympathizing with her friend. They had talked about Kim's problems before, sure, but _Shego_ was the person who had been causing all that confusion?

The door to Ron's room was open just a crack, and Monique prepared to knock. She anticipated some kind of ridiculously melodramatic scene where the door would ease open the rest of the way to reveal Ron dressed completely in black, maybe announcing to her that he had taken up witchcraft before stabbing at a voodoo doll of Kim Possible. Okay, so maybe that was a little far-fetched, but Ron had been pretty out of it lately.

"Hey, Ron, it's your girl Monique!"

An unintelligible mumble came from behind the door. Monique rolled her eyes and opened it the rest of the way, inviting herself into his room. The scene wasn't quite as bad as her wild imagination had anticipated, but it still looked pretty bad. Tissue paper and snacks scattered over the floor, which was a little gross; disheveled sheets; and, finally, Ron, sitting cross-legged with his back against the head of his bed, reading what looked like a school yearbook and sniffling.

_ Why? _thought Monique. _Why do I gotta deal with all this drama? When's it Monique's turn to whine about stuff?_

"Feeling okay, Ron?"

"If by okay you mean horrible, yeah, I'm feeling okay," said Ron.

"No, not really what I meant."

"I was just looking at our freshman yearbook, and Kim totally didn't even sign anything! Everyone else said 'have a nice summer' and 'what is that disgusting pink thing', and she wrote nothing!"

Monique crinkled her brow. "Um, wasn't that because you guys hung out so much that there wasn't any point in saying have a nice summer when you were gonna see each other in, like, a day?"

"Whatever."

Monique sighed and took a seat on the side of his bed, gingerly brushing aside some used tissue paper. "Your parents are pretty nice," she said, getting no reply. "It was nice you went to school today, at least. We missed you the last couple days."

"Who did? Mr. Barkin?"

Ron let out a short, barking laugh. Monique had to repress a little irritation; he seemed to be in a contrary mood this afternoon. But then, he had caught his girlfriend sleeping with the last person in the world he would have expected. Monique knew she'd be more than a little irked if that happened to her, had she ever had a boyfriend for more than a few weeks at a time. "Are you _completely_ sure you saw what you thought you saw?" she asked. "I mean, maybe they were just fighting each other and some clothes got knocked off or something. Like your pants thing, but in a more sexy way."

"No way – that wasn't fighting."

"Have you tried talking to Kim about it? Maybe it was all a big misunderstanding. Or maybe it was just some kind of weird stress thing. I mean, those two fightin' all the time, maybe at some point you get a little confused with the adrenaline and all. That girl is so high-strung, you never know what weird stuff might happen."

Ron considered the possibility for a moment, and almost seemed like he was about to buy into it, until his face hardened back into a glowering mask. Monique supposed it did seem a little far-fetched. But then, the reality – if Ron really _had_ seen Kim and Shego in the sack together – was even more wrongsick. Monique had been getting the impression that things had gotten a little weird between her two best friends lately, but she never would have expected _this_.

"You guys really should talk," said Monique. "Come on, you've been friends your whole lives."

"I have nothing to say to her."

He pouted and crossed his arms together. Maybe it was too early to try to get the two of her friends back together, after all; Ron had clearly made up his mind, at least for now.

Monique was just getting tired of all of it. Whatever had happened, Kim _did_ seem like she was more at fault, but Monique hated having to decide where to sit at lunch everyday. Whether sitting with Kim was condoning her behavior, or whether sitting with Ron was telling Kim that she wasn't there for her, which – even if Kim had made a mistake – was not the case. Not exactly, anyway. Maybe Kim needed a little silent treatment to let her know the error of her ways. But it was like a horrible game of musical chairs, but with no music, and more tater tots. So maybe not like musical chairs at all, Monique decided.

She was about to offer up another feeble attempt at consoling Ron when his bedside phone rang. Ron cleared his throat and picked it up. "Hello? Oh, hey, Wade. What's up?"

Monique heard something about a mission.

"I'm not interested. Kim can do it if she wants."

A pause.

"Really?"

Assuming it was Wade on the phone, Monique couldn't help wondering what would happen to the whole mission thing if her friends didn't make up.

"Just ask Global Justice to do it. Or, hey, maybe she'll be interested if you ask _Shego_ to go along with her!"

Ron hung up the phone before Wade could answer.

Monique frowned. "What, neither one of you guys are going on the mission?"

"KP didn't have her Kimmunicator on, and her parents said she didn't feel like talking when he called the house."

So both her friends were cutting themselves off. She couldn't help wondering if the fact that Ron had blabbed the story out so quickly would makes things harder to patch up, too. Ron had spilled the story to her, and Wade from the sound of it, and probably Felix, seeing as he and Ron hung out sometimes. Monique knew her weakness was a gossip, and unfortunately she had blabbed to a couple of people she knew, too. It hadn't taken long for the whole thing to end up all around the school, and she knew Kim had been taking some flak for it from people like Bonnie. Maybe it was ultimately Kim's fault for doing what she did, but Monique knew she and Ron had inadvertently added fuel to the fire.

"I guess I should have seen it coming," said Ron.

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since that mission where we went to Drakken's lair and Shego had that freaky Kim synthodrone thing. Things got kind of strange between us ever since then, and I figured the whole sitch had just grossed Kim out or something. But it must have put ideas in her head. And the way they got along so well when Shego was Miss Go, even if it's not the same – or maybe it was just my fault. Maybe I couldn't give her what she wanted."

Ron sniffled as his eyes began to well, and Monique sidled up to him on the bed and wrapped an arm around him as he leaned his head over her shoulder. As sad as it was, Monique began to wonder if Ron's regrets had some reality to them. During that conversation at the mall, after all, Kim had made it clear that she and Ron were going through a rough patch. And as much as Monique loved Ron, she knew the boy wasn't always grade-A boyfriend material. Loyal, yeah, and a kind heart, but very self-absorbed sometimes. Immature.

Why Kim would shack up with her worst enemy, other than maybe Bonnie, made less sense to Monique, but she was aware of how Kim and Miss Go had become friends, at least for a while. Ron's reference to the synthodrone was more obscure to her, although she did know that something awkweird had happened on one of their missions a little while ago, after which Kim had been acting strange – a little distant.

_A supervillain lesbian lover_, thought Monique. Was it even possible?

As for Kim's preferences, it was still a little surprising, but to be honest, Kim _did_ talk about guys less than most girls did – Monique always figured it was because other things took priority in her life. It wasn't like Monique had that much experience with guys either, after all. Before Ron, the only guys she had seen Kim crushing on were Eric and Hirotaka; Eric seemed like a reaction to problems she with was having with Ron at the time, and something about the way Kim went after Hirotaka struck Monique more as a kind of competition against her than anything serious. So it wasn't out of the question, decided Monique. Maybe Kim could get into _some_ girls, at least. But that wasn't really the part that threw her for a loop. It was _which_ girl in particular.

Could Kim go to the dark side like that? The girl was high-strung sometimes. With her constant focus on missions and schoolwork and extracurriculars, Monique couldn't help wondering if her best friend had played some role in derailing her relationship with Ron, too. Both of them had their drama. But even if Kim had been having trouble coping, going bad seemed – well, too bad to be true. It just wasn't possible for a Possible.

Or was it?

XX

Getting crap from Bonnie all day had not been surprising, even if Bonnie had been given a new topic with which she could needle Kim after Ron and Monique blabbed things everywhere. But getting crap from her parents? Even more surprising.

All Kim had wanted was an evening snack, and so she had sneaked downstairs to grab something from the fridge and bring it up to her room, not really in the mood for conversation. Unfortunately, both her parents had been waiting for her, skillfully cornering her in the kitchen and sitting her down at the table like it was some kind of intervention. Kim Possible, substance abuser. One too many hits from the girl in green. Talking about it with the folks was just about the last thing she wanted to do after an already rotten day.

"Kimmie-cub," said her father, "we just don't understand why you would choose to get involved with a woman like that. It's almost as bad as show folk!"

"That's right," said her mother, after flashing a momentary look of confusion her husband's way. "We're just concerned about your safety, sweetie! You're usually so well-behaved, and this just doesn't make any sense to us. Are you – are you experimenting? I won't lie, there was one time in college when-"

"_Mom!_"

"Sorry, honey."

Kim tried to shrink into her chair, hoping that maybe if she got low enough she might be absorbed into the cushion and disappear from this horrendously awkweird sitch. First Mr. Barkin, and now her mother, sharing young adult experiences that she didn't want to hear about. Even if, she had to admit, it was certainly possible that there was some similarity in their experiences and hers.

_ But no_, she told herself. _No giving in!_ This was her problem, and everyone else was just meddling.

"So who told you about me and Shego," she asked. "Ron, I'm guessing?"

Her parents flashed anxious looks at each other.

"Ron may have mentioned something about why the two of you were so upset that night," her mom admitted.

Kim grunted in exasperation.

"Well, you weren't willing to talk to us, sweetie! All you've done this week is shut yourself up in your room after school – how are we supposed to know what's going on? At this point, Ron is a part of the family to us."

"He's my boyfriend," said Kim. "Or at least he _was_."

"What happened?" asked her dad. "Were things not working out? Why Shego, of all people?"

"She broke into _my_ room! She jumped on me first – it's not like I've been secretly going out with her or anything! I don't know what exactly Ron told you, but he doesn't have the whole story."

"So you're saying Shego attacked you? I don't understand – why couldn't you just explain that to Ron?"

"I've tried. Ron isn't exactly a good listener when he's angry about something."

Her parents exchanged brief looks, acknowledging her point. "Why did Shego break into your room?" asked her father. "She was trying to attack you?"

"Yes – well – no, not exactly. Not like that."

"Then what?"

Kim fell silent. How was she supposed to explain Shego's actions to her parents when she didn't really understand them herself? Not to mention, the conversation was veering faster and faster towards extreme discomfort. Her romantic life – not to mention her apparent stalkers-cum-archenemies – wasn't Kim's conversational topic of choice when it came to chatting with her family.

"Look," she said, hoping to get the conversation over with as quickly as possible, "Shego has some kind of thing for me, apparently. I don't know what it is, I don't know why she has it – it's just a weird thing. That's all."

"And you don't feel anything in return?"

"No. Like, ick!"

It was barely even a lie, really – maybe 'no' was a bit too emphatic, but the answer definitely wasn't 'yes'. She couldn't deny it anymore: there _was_ something appealing about Shego in a raw, animal sort of way, but for all Kim knew, it was just a weird side effect of their rivalry. It might not be anything more than a purely physical reaction, born out of their mutual history of close physical encounters. In combat. For all Kim knew, that was totally normal.

For just a moment, Kim thought her lie was going to fly under the radar. Unfortunately, lie or not, she could almost feel her face blanching as he parents stared at her. An awkward silence spread like a blanket over the table, and she knew they could read her like a book. She was a bad liar; not to mention that her parents, having had that job since her birth, knew her well enough to know when she was trying to pull one over on them.

So much for trying to sidestep the totally awkweird direction the conversation was going.

"Kimmie-cub," said her father, "you can tell us anything, you know."

"I'd really rather not."

Her mother reached across the table and placed a hand over Kim's, which, to her, somehow ratcheted the freaky level of the conversation up to immeasurable levels. "Kimmie," she said, "Neither of us are going to judge you if you're having confused feelings. That's perfectly normal. We're just worried when it comes to someone like Shego. I know you got along with her when she was Miss Go, but she was zapped by that personality-altering ray, wasn't she?"

"The Reverse Polarizer," corrected Kim.

"That's right. But that wasn't really Shego – she's your enemy, Kim. She's put you in danger countless times!"

"You think I don't _know_ that?"

"Then why Shego?" asked her father. "Why not have feelings for Monique? She's such a nice girl."

Kim wondered if her eyes were going to bug out enough to drop out of her head and roll across the floor.

"Is this some kind of teenage rebellious phase?"

Her mother clutched her father's shoulder in reaction to the comment. "She was so well-behaved until now – maybe she's just a late bloomer, and this is her way of breaking out of a rut! She's been Ron's best friend for so long, and now his girlfriend, and with high school almost over, maybe she's just having a little crisis of confidence and trying out new things – that _must_ be it!"

"Um, hello," said Kim. "I'm right here!"

"Is that what it is, sweetie? You've been fighting supervillains for so long, you just want a taste of what it's like?"

Something about the way her mother said 'taste' made Kim's skin crawl. Even worse was that, as overblown as her parents were acting, there did seem to be a grain of truth in her mother's ideas. Maybe she was starting to freak out. Maybe she had been feeling restricted by her relationship with Ron, by her missions, by the very idea of having to grow up – and yet, beyond all that, there did seem to be something undeniable beneath it.

An urge.

A desire, kindled by the thought of that night in her bed, locked together with her intruder-

_Ugh_, she thought. She definitely didn't want to start thinking about that with her parents right in front of her. And, to be honest, she couldn't explain much to her parents even if she wanted to. The whole business with Shego had been a complete mess, ever since she and Ron had stumbled on that stupid synthodrone Kim-clone. Shego had definitely been finding new and inventive ways of getting under her skin.

"Kimmie-cub," said her father as she got up from the table, "where are you going?"

"Out for a walk."

"It's kind of late, isn't it?"

"I just need some air. I don't want to talk about this anymore."

Kim felt a little pang of guilt as she left the kitchen, glancing back briefly to see her parents sitting together at the table, looking nervous and worried. She left the house as quickly as possible and set out along the street towards downtown Middleton. She didn't know where she was going, really. Bueno Nacho was out of the question, as Ron might be there, and she didn't feel like dealing with him. He could be anywhere in town; running into him was the last thing she wanted tonight. But she didn't want to be at home, either. There was nowhere left she could go.

Under the yellow glow of sidewalk street lamps, Kim wrestled with herself. Sometimes it felt like there were two of her, fighting for control: the Kim who was always on top of everything, always the good girl, always trying her hardest to please everyone and do what was right; and then, the other one.

The Kim who _knew_ she was right. The Kim who wanted to do things her way and get what she wanted, regardless of what anyone else thought. The Kim who hated playing by the rules.

Usually, the first Kim was the obvious one, the natural one. But sometimes that second Kim showed up in her more competitive moments, or when she was fighting with Bonnie, or even – in some small way – when she was out shopping with Monique and wanted the most expensive pair of Club Banana cargo pants in the store. And for some reason, that second Kim had been getting louder lately. She wasn't sure when it had started; maybe in brief moments during her relationship with Ron, when she wondered when her boyfriend was going to grow up a little; maybe when she was thinking about her future, about joining Global Justice, about how many people depended on her more and more with each passing mission.

Or maybe she was just skirting the truth. Maybe she knew _exactly_ who had truly woken up that second self.

Lost in her aimless thoughts, Kim looked around to find she had arrived in downtown Middleton. She had never actually gotten that snack from the fridge, what with her parents' intervention; she could stop by a café, or try a fast food place other than Bueno Nacho, seeing as Ron wasn't around to complain about it. She walked down the sidewalk, checking the various shops and stores as she went. Before she could make a choice, however, Kim felt her next step land on thin air instead of concrete.

"What the-"

She hadn't even noticed the round hole open up in the sidewalk. Kim dropped straight into it with a brief yell of surprise, sailing down a black shaft into the earth. For a moment she wondered if she had been stupid enough to fall down an open manhole cover without even realizing it, but as she got a distinct translucent plastic tube-like impression from the walls surrounding her, she realized what was happening.

Apparently, it was time for an unwanted visit to Global Justice.

Sure enough, after taking a few nauseating twists and turns aided by some kind of gravitational buoying system in the tube, she dropped down one final length and slowed rapidly to a halt just before hitting the ground in a heap. GJ's technology always impressed her, even if they didn't know how to use it half the time. A door in front of her slid open with a sleek whoosh of air, flooding the tube with light, and Kim peered out at the underground facility. She had a welcoming party, too. How nice.

"Will Du," she said sourly. "Nice to see you again."

Du was holding some kind of futuristic-looking rifle in his hand. He took a step forward, motioning for several accompanying GJ agents on either side of him to follow his lead. They formed a semicircle around the entrance of the tube as Kim took a step into the facility.

"Kim Possible!" he barked. "You are hereby under arrest for consorting with the enemy!"


	7. Double Agents

**Double Agents**

XX

Cyrus Bortel definitely didn't do his visitors any favors with his laboratory location. Shego could have sworn there was some kind of winding road that used to lead to his mountainside research facility, but the one they had been following twisted off unexpectedly and went right back down in the direction of the valley. She and Drakken were hiking the rest of the way; hopefully her memory served her right, and this was the same place where she had first met him about the whole synthodrone thing. If they were on the wrong mountain entirely, well – _that_ would be embarrassing.

"How much further, Shego? My calves are on fire!"

Shego ignored the question. She hadn't asked Doctor D to come along, anyway. The whole situation was a little embarrassing already, whether or not they were on the right mountain. She had tried to sneak out of the lair without him noticing, only for him to pop up at the last moment, just before she was about to get on the hovercraft and hightail it out of there. Drakken said he wanted to have a little chat with Bortel about stealing his synthodrone technology and using it for his own purposes. Shego wondered what the point was. Was there even such a thing as evil technology copyright law? Doctor D had probably stolen the idea from some government lab, as far as she knew. And when he did it, it wasn't stealing – it was outsourcing.

"I don't know why you sent that syntho-Kim off in the first place," said Drakken as they pushed their way up through a steep, rocky incline. "You should have either destroyed it or kept it."

Shego looked at the GPS coordinates on a tracker she was carrying, hoping she had the right numbers. "Kept it?" she asked curiously. Drakken had given her the impression he was leery of the synthodrone. "I thought that thing weirded you out?"

"I've thought about it," he said, "and it could have been an interesting tool. I won't get into your perverted uses, but I was thinking it might be a good way to mess with her teen brain, perhaps. Psychological warfare. Bring it along on missions and see if it freaks her out. And who wouldn't pay to see Kim Possible fight herself and lose?"

"You already tried getting into her 'teen brain' with Eric, and we know how far that got."

"An inch away from total success, if that's what you're getting at," said Drakken testily.

"Too bad that last inch was enough for total failure."

"Cruel, Shego. Just cruel."

"Well, either way, I got rid of it because I didn't really know what else to do. I tried to shut the thing down, but the failsafe button was disabled."

"You could have just torn it limb from limb."

That was true. Shego remembered being unable to do that because of the physical resemblance to Kim that Bortel had so successfully achieved. Personality-wise, the synthodrone was not quite as similar, but Shego knew that was probably her own fault just as much as it was Bortel's. Still, it was concerning that she couldn't even destroy the synthodrone. All this time, and she had been so convinced she wanted to tear Kimmie limb from limb, and yet, even when she had the opportunity to do it with a soulless copy...

"Look," she snapped, "what's done is done. I just have to get Bortel to disable her remotely. I could swear he said something about being able to do that when I stopped by to get the thing made."

"Why do you want to disable it, anyway?"

"In case Kimmie decides she's interested in taking things to the next level. I don't think she'd be quite as open to that if I had her sex clone hanging around. Unless she's even more repressed than I thought."

Shego was surprised about how open she was now. A couple of months ago she couldn't have mentioned her feelings towards Kim so off-handedly with Drakken around, but it didn't really matter anymore. After having her sex bot parade itself around naked in front of her boss and his henchmen, Shego supposed she was beyond embarrassment. Drakken huffed and puffed as the two of them clambered over a rocky outcropping that blocked their path.

"Isn't remote termination a product flaw?" asked Drakken. "What's to stop him from remotely killing the syntho-Kim after a few months, telling you it went past its expiration date and burned out, and forcing you to get another?"

Shego hadn't thought of that. "He said it was just in case it got lost, or in case it turned on me. Although I guess I should have asked him for the remote termination code. I was a little distracted last time I met him."

"Distracted by the promises of synthetic sexy time, I'm sure."

"Shut it."

"I'm still concerned about this sudden fascination with Kim Possible, Shego."

"It's not sudden, okay? The girl just does it for me, not that it's any of your business."

"How do I know I can trust you? How do I know you're not getting tired of being my evil sidekick and thinking about switching sides so you can fight me with those teens?"

Shego looked back at Drakken, unable to resist shooting a malicious grin his way.

"If I did, could you really stop me?"

She gave her boss a pointed smirk and an arched eyebrow. Drakken sputtered for a moment, but judging by his silence, his usually inflated ego wasn't so large today that he missed the point she was making. "You'll just have to take my word for it," she said. "Besides, I like what I do. I think Kimmie's the one who might switch. A girl as straight-laced as her has to be hiding some hidden urges to walk on the wild side. I've already brought some of it out of her-"

Shego paused for a moment, wondering if telling Drakken about her last visit to Kim would only fuel his suspicions about her switching sides. But then, she had already admitted she was trying to get the girl to turn bad. If Drakken was going to be suspicious, then there wasn't much she could do about it.

"Oh, don't worry," said Drakken, sensing her hesitancy. "You think I don't know about your little trip to Kim Possible's house the other day? You think I can't track that hovercraft?"

"Alright, look, Doctor D - the point is, if we can get Princess to ditch the whole goody-two-shoes thing and show her the perks of being a bad girl, think about the kind of ally we'd have. Think about what we could do if Kim Possible was working for us. _No one_ could stop us!"

A look of gradual realization crossed Doctor D's face, like he had just solved a really difficult math problem. Shego could tell her point was sinking in. Although her interest had started out on purely physical terms, she had definitely thought about the idea of teaming up with Kim. The two of them would be unstoppable. A dynamic duo in green and red, taking the world by storm. Girl power and all that, but maybe a less goody-goody phrase than that one. Maybe she could even convince Kimmie to wear some kind of red and black harlequin suit to match her own. Although she wondered if complementary outfits would be too cutesy. Either way, if the two of them ever got in cahoots, maybe Doctor D would be right to worry – would they really need him anymore?

"Oh, _finally!_ I can't even feel my feet anymore!"

After skirting around one last rocky outcropping, the two of them had arrived at what looked like the entrance to Cyrus Bortel's laboratory, carved into the side of the mountain. It was definitely the same as it looked in her memory - just much more inaccessible now, for some reason. She knocked on the door while Drakken sat down nearby, removing his boots and wheezing for breath as he shook a few pebbles out of them. They waited. Just when she was beginning to get impatient, the slick metal door slid up into the mountain, revealing a dark entrance that belched out a blast of cool air from its depths. Soon, a figure appeared from the gloom.

"Ah, Shego and Drakken!" said Cyrus Bortel. "It is so nice of you to stop by!"

Apparently, he already knew they were coming. Bortel beckoned them into a long entryway, and the two of them followed him through it on the way to his laboratory. Shego thought it was a shame the guy didn't go into supervillainy; he had the style down, and this was a nice location for an evil lair. The two of them followed him deeper into the facility. "Tell me," he said, "why have you graced me with the pleasure of your company?"

"I need to talk about the syntho-Kim," said Shego.

"Ah, yes. How is that working out for you?"

"Not so good. She's missing, and I need to have her neutralized."

Bortel shook his head with disappointment. "Missing? How did this come about? She is completely devoted to you, as a result of my genius programming."

Drakken coughed angrily, which Bortel ignored.

"Uh, it's kind of a long story," said Shego, "but I had to get rid of her. I just need to make sure she's not off running around and getting noticed by the wrong people."

Although she didn't mention anyone in particular, Bortel's cheeky look made it clear he knew exactly who she was talking about. Kim meeting Kim was the last thing Shego wanted. It was true that Kim hadn't called her up on that phone number or stopped by the lair yet – not that Princess knew where they were, but a temporary lair near Middleton wasn't exactly a foolproof hideout, and Kim would find out sooner or later, just like she always did.

Still, Shego was counting on an answer to her last ditch plea the other night. There was no way Kimmie could deny what had gone down between them. The only problem if Kim _did_ cave would be seeing a synthodrone clone of herself and having to vie with it for Shego's attention. That would probably be a deal breaker. Shego knew _she'd _be a little weirded out about something like that.

"Here we are," said Bortel.

They reached a room full of shelving, a few computer terminals, and a window carved out of the rock that looked down over the mountain from a steep cliffside. Shego glanced out, taking in the view. It was nice, although the sky was drenched in a heavy gray wash. She could even make out a town in the distance, too. "It should be easy to disable her," said Bortel. "Just give me a moment."

"I'd like a word with you about stealing my synthodrone technology," Drakken snapped abruptly.

Bortel turned, looking a little confused. Shego realized Doctor D hadn't said much of anything since they arrived at Bortel's facility; he seemed to be a lighter shade of blue than usual, as if he was holding back anger. Even his hands were shaking a little, knuckles whitened with pressure. Shego stifled a laugh. Doctor D was so cute when he was angry.

"_Your_ technology?" asked Bortel.

"That's correct! _My_ technology! I invented it and you _stole_ it from me!"

Bortel laughed. "Oh, yes. Now I remember – Shego was kind enough to provide me with some of your ideas. Never mind that. I did some improvements of my own, so it is my technology now."

"It doesn't work that way!" yelled Drakken.

"I believe it does," said Bortel. "Would you like me to write down a list of all the things you've stolen from _me_?"

The way the comment stopped Doctor D like a brick wall was one of the funniest things Shego had seen in a while. She barely held back a snort of laughter as her boss stood fuming, impotent in his rage. Apparently Doctor D hadn't really been planning much in terms of confrontation. She had already faced his ire a little while ago about taking the technology, but she got the feeling that Doctor D didn't like accosting her so directly. That, and at the time, she had calmed him down by stroking his ego over how she couldn't resist using his creative genius for her own private ends.

"Perhaps I can show you some of the modifications I made," said Bortel, trying to placate his foe. "And I have a few other exciting projects you may be interested in hearing about."

"You don't say," said Drakken. "I may stoop to giving them a glance or two, if you insist."

Shego felt like Drakken's change of mood had just given her whiplash. It was obvious that his anger was already changing to curiosity. Shego rolled her eyes at the complete 180. Boys and their toys. She waited while Bortel pressed a few buttons on one of his computers.

"Let's see here. Hmm, that is quite interesting. It appears that her location tracker has been disabled, so I'm afraid I can't tell you where she is."

Shego frowned. That syntho-Kim seemed to have a way of modifying her own systems. A little creepy.

"Can you disable her?"

"I am sure," said Bortel. "It is a failsafe system, after all. Give me a moment."

A few more buttons, a few more flashing windows and warnings on the computer screen.

"There! Done!"

Shego peered at the screen more closely. A skull and crossbones flashed across the monitor, which got the message across pretty clearly. She felt a pang of remorse, wondering how exactly it worked. Did Kim simply melt into a puddle of goo, like Drakken's other synthodrone henchmen? Was she even made out of goo? Or had Bortel changed things on a more basic level?

Remorse and guilt began to gnaw more painfully, welling up inside her, as she thought about what she had done. Even if it was a synthodrone, something about it rubbed her the wrong way. Even the real Kim fought against her, at least, foiled her schemes – what had syntho-Kim done to her? Nothing Shego didn't beg for. She made a mental note; all of this was definitely a good lesson. Synthodrones were no different than clones, really, and cloning had always grossed her out. This time, she had just made the mistake of letting her personal desires get in the way. But never again.

"So that's it?" she asked. "She's gone?"

"That is correct. That is it. Drakken, would you like to accompany me to my level two laboratories? I have some fascinating work in emotional manipulation technology in progress, and I would be interested in any input you may have."

"As you should be," said Drakken. "I am an expert at manipulating emotion."

Shego should have scoffed at the empty boasting. Drakken wasn't even an expert at controlling his emotions on a day to day basis. But she wasn't really paying much attention. Bortel's words had fallen on her like a dead weight.

That was it. No more syntho-Kim. The idea stung, and Sheo still felt a sense of unease about what she had done, shrouding her mind like a fog. And then, alongside her guilt, there was doubt; it all seemed a little too fast, too easy. The synthodrone had disabled the killswitch on her neck, after all, as well as her location tracker; did Bortel really know for sure it had worked? Shego supposed she'd have to take his word for it.

As for her unease, she told herself it was the right thing to do. That synthodrone had to go. With the facsimile out of the way, there was room for the real thing to blossom. The illusion could be replaced by reality. All she needed was for Kim Possible to take the bait, make the call, realize what was right in front of her face. The girl just had to step out of her box.

XX

At that moment, Kim was feeling very boxed in.

Part of the problem was that her prison cell was about as spacious as a cardboard box. Or maybe it was a brig – she wasn't really sure what they called it in an organization like Global Justice. She had only been locked in for about half an hour, but it was already enough to put her in an incredibly foul mood. Of all the nerve, to throw her into a cell with no explanation, just because of some half-heard rumor about her shacking up with Shego. Okay, technically _that_ part was true, but it wasn't like that was _consorting_ with the enemy. Not in an illegal way, anyway.

"Hey, you!"

Kim shouted to the guard standing outside her cell door. The man turned around with a smirk.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"This is ridiculous – get Dr. Director for me."

"She'll be here momentarily, ma'am."

"Do I look like a ma'am to you?"

The man shrugged impudently. Kim felt her irritation rising.

"Why are you holding me in here? You haven't even read me my rights!"

"It's Global Justice, ma – uh, Miss Possible. We don't have to read rights."

"Who are you, anyway?"

"I'm Agent Ullman."

"You're no gentleman."

"What? No, Agent Ullman. You'll have to wait until Dr. Director gets here. Nothing I can do about it."

Kim gave the bars a kick of frustration and sat down in the cot alongside her cell wall. This was definitely a cause for concern. She was shocked at how fast an organization she had trusted for years was now turning on her. Everyone had been attacking her lately – it was tiresome, to say the last. And it was pointless to wonder how they had heard about her little tryst with Shego – maybe Wade had told them, or maybe they had bugs set up in Middleton High School, where the constant undercurrent of gossip was bound to make waves on their radar.

And it certainly wasn't all that shocking that Will Du had snatched her right off the street and sucked her down the GJ tube, throwing her straight into this cell – when she thought about it, it seemed _exactly_ like something Du would do if he was in charge. No questions, no understanding of the nuances of a tricky situation. Knee-jerk and by-the-book. Except that she didn't know how she had done anything all that bad, and he wasn't in charge, either. At least not as far as she knew...

"Dr. Director," said the guard outside her cell bars. "Welcome back!"

"Thank you, Ullman."

Kim got up from her cot and approached the bars as Dr. Director approached, offering the guard a curt nod before turning to meet her. "Kim Possible," she said. "Good to see you."

Dr. Director had something in her hand – at first Kim thought it was a weapon, and the brief thought of being summarily executed right there in the cell crossed her mind. Ridiculous, she knew, even if GJ had gone overboard by throwing her in a prison cell. But she was feeling a little jumpy. Sure enough, it wasn't a weapon but some kind of scanning device. Dr. Director pointed it at her and ran it steadily up and down, completing a couple of sweeps before reading the results.

"She evil?" asked Agent Ullman.

"No. It's not an evil detector, anyway. I'm testing if she's been hit by any personality reversing devices. And she has not. She's still the normal Kim Possible."

"You could have just _asked_ me," said Kim.

Dr. Director's only response was a quick grunt. Kim watched as she put the scanner away and slipped a key card through a reader on the wall outside the cell. The bars retracted themselves into the ceiling, leaving the cell door open. The guard stepped aside, and Kim stepped out – maybe it had all been some kind of misunderstanding.

"Sorry for the misunderstanding," said Dr. Director.

"Right."

"I was a little busy with the progress of some operations in China, and I told Agent Du to bring you in when we had the opportunity so we could chat about a few things. Unfortunately, Agent Du took that a little too literally. It was probably for the best – we didn't know if you were under the influence of something like the Attitudinator or the Reverse Polarizer. Seeing as you've had problems with those recently, we were worried you might have been compromised. Still, I apologize for holding you against your will."

_Like you could do that even if you wanted to_, thought Kim. It definitely seemed like Dr. Director was trying to shrug off what seemed like a pretty creepy move, but still, she felt her anger dissipating a little now that she was out of the cell and talking civilly with Dr. Director. "So what did you want to talk about?" she asked, anticipating the woman's answer.

"We've had some disturbing reports about you and Shego."

Yup. Always with the awkwardness lately. Kim felt like she couldn't escape from it anymore. She stuck out her tongue at Agent Ullman as Dr. Director relieved him from his guard duty and sent him off in the other direction. The two of them made their way down the hall, Dr. Director leading the way. As they passed through the main control room, Dr. Director looked inside and motioned for Will Du to follow them, who was speaking with a few other agents near a large viewing screen. Du dropped what he was doing and fell in step as the three of them left the control room and entered a smaller room; maybe some kind of office. The decorations were sparse: not much besides a desk and chairs arranged smack dab in the middle of the room. Maybe Dr. Director's office.

Or, Kim wondered, maybe some kind of interrogation room.

"Kim," said Dr. Director as she took a seat on one side of the desk and motioned for Kim to join her, "we're concerned about your behavior lately. Specifically, your behavior around Shego."

Will Du stood beside his boss, arms crossed as he stared impassively. Kim immediately felt a surge of defensiveness, just like she had felt at Mr. Barkin's questioning. "Why is it any of _your_ business?" she snapped.

"We're Global Justice. Agent Du throwing you in a cell was a bit of a overrreaction, but we still have strong evidence that you've been interacting with Shego in a non-combat role lately. It was one thing when you were bonding with her after her personality was reversed – we assumed that was simply a fluke, as she wasn't the real Shego – but it's worrying that we've heard about continuing meetings since then. You're one of our greatest assets, and Shego is a known criminal wanted in multiple countries. We can't help worrying when you associate with her outside of the work environment."

"The _work environment_? What, like when I'm kicking her ass?"

"Exactly," said Will Du, nodding.

"We just want to know what's going on, Kim. Could you clear things up for us a little?"

Something about the way Dr. Director asked the question rubbed Kim the wrong way. At first she was angry, but soon her ire melted into a hesitancy that spread through her body like cold molasses. She was out of her cell, but maybe she wasn't in the clear as much as she thought. Could they really do anything to her just for getting a little hot and heavy with Shego? She couldn't imagine what could be illegal about that; it wasn't like she was aiding and abetting the woman's criminal activities, after all.

And yet, the more she thought about it, the more she realized she really had no idea just what kind of powers Global Justice could wield. She had always assumed they were largely incompetent from the way they handled missions with her. But then, incompetency could be dangerous, too.

"Look," said Dr. Director, sensing her reluctance, "Global Justice is a powerful organization. We want to work with you because you're amazing at what you do, and you're willing to cut a few legal corners to defeat the enemy."

"What are you talking about?"

"Let's be reasonable, Kim. Breaking into lairs with no solid evidence of wrongdoing? Blowing things up willy-nilly? Sure, supervillains don't care about the rules, but you're not exactly big on following the law down to the letter yourself. You're not too far removed from a vigilante."

Kim still felt the urge to protest, but now that she was forced to think about it, she supposed she had never looked at things that way. Maybe Dr. Director had a point.

"We have our own procedures here, and people like Will Du love to follow those to the letter, when he's not letting personal bias seep in" - at this, Kim caught Will Du giving just the briefest frown of displeasure before returning to his usual composure - "but you'd be surprised at what we're allowed to do without much oversight. You don't want us as an enemy. But that's why I wanted to talk to you. I think there must be a misunderstanding. You're one of our most valuable allies, after all."

Kim barely resisted a scoff. It was amazing how her perceptions could change so quickly. All this, because they were spooked by a few encounters with Shego, which she hadn't even initiated herself? "It wasn't like I was the one who chose to do anything with Shego," she said, voicing her thoughts out loud. "She broke into my room!"

Dr. Director silently wrote something on a paper attached to a clipboard she had retrieved from a desk drawer. Once again, Kim found herself defending actions that weren't even her choice. Not even her fault. At first she had blamed Shego for all of it, for making her life such a mess lately, but she couldn't help wondering if she was being a little unfair to Shego herself. True, the woman had been a pain in the butt lately, but Shego obviously had some kind of attraction to her. Kim knew how easy it was to act stupid when attraction was involved. How hard it was to control your impulses. Kim had certainly failed to do that the other night. And with someone as nasty as Shego, those impulses translated into – well, breaking and entering into bedrooms, for one thing.

Shego had a hard time listening to Kim when she insisted she felt nothing, but in a way, that was because Shego had been right. Kim still thought of her as the enemy, but there was an undeniable attraction there. Shego had felt it. She had _known_ it. And even if Shego didn't listen, nobody else had been listening to her lately either. Ron wouldn't give her the time of day, for instance. All he did was run away and shut her down. He had never really listened to her all that much, anyway – it was sort of a chronic problem with Ron. Monique hadn't been there for her, not to mention she had probably helped spread the gossip in the first place. Her parents didn't trust her. Mr. Barkin, and now Dr. Director, thought she was turning to the dark side. It was driving her up the wall.

"I have a suggestion," said Dr. Director.

Kim eyed her suspiciously.

"What's that?"

"If Shego has been having these little rendezvous with you – uh, rendezvous? Rendezvouses?"

Dr. Director looked up at Will Du, who shrugged.

"Maybe it's the same plural," suggested Kim.

"Or maybe you pronounce the 's' instead of leaving it silent? Du, aren't you proficient in French?"

"Yes, ma'am, but I do not know how it's pronounced in English."

Dr. Director and Kim both raised their eyebrows at him.

"Vous," said Dr. Director. "That's French for 'you all', isn't it? Vous avez les rendez avec la Shego? Something like that? But wait, is that even how the word..."

Kim noticed Will Du wincing visibly. Apparently Dr. Director's French was not perfect.

"Could we get back to whatever you were suggesting?" she asked.

"Oh, right. Anyway, as I was saying, do you have some way of getting in contact with Shego? We haven't been able to locate Drakken's latest lair yet, but we'll be stepping up our efforts shortly. We need to get those two back in prison, after all. If it's true you're not consorting with her, we could use your help in finding Drakken's lair and taking both of them down more quickly."

The room fell silent as Dr. Director and Will Du waited for Kim's answer. It was a good idea, thought Kim, and seeing as Shego seemed to be letting down her defenses due to this attraction she felt - whatever it was - Kim probably had an opportunity to take them both down when they usually just escaped her grasp. It was what she did, after all. Fought the bad guys.

And yet she could feel herself protesting, resisting. The fact that she had to tell herself that – that she fought the bad guys. It was what she _did_. That was never something she had thought about before, never something she needed to remind herself, and yet now there was this strange detachment. Maybe it was just because it was Shego. Suddenly, throwing her in jail didn't seem quite as clear cut as it always had. Things had been so strange lately, her thoughts had been so muddled after that last encounter in the bedroom...

The phone number. Kim remembered the little sticky note Shego had left on her desk.

"I do have a way of getting in contact with her," she said.

"Excellent. Maybe we should formulate a plan while you're here, then."

Kim's mind raced. She felt herself caught between impossible choices. And then... a flash.

"Um - I have a suggestion of my own."

Dr. Director, who had been flipping to a blank paper on her clipboard, looked up.

"Yes?"

Kim had blurted out her statement without even thinking about it, only because the briefest hint of a plan had taken seed in her mind. Probably not what Dr. Director and Will Du were thinking, but they might go for it. She couldn't help wondering what her motivation was, but somehow, the plan was too tempting to resist. It took shape in her mind by the second, and the possibilities were irresistable. She was kidding herself, anyway. She knew what her motivation was.

"Shego's been acting so strangely," she said, "especially after she turned into Miss Go after being hit by that Reverse Polarizer, or whatever it was. I'm wondering if maybe Shego's been having second thoughts. You guys are so worried I'm turning into a bad guy or something, but why haven't you given any consideration to the possibility that she might be turning _good_?"

"Supervillains do not 'turn good'," said Will Du.

Kim ignored the barely concealed condescension. "Look - right now, it seems like Shego is trying to start some kind of relationship with me. She's opening up, letting her defenses down, and for all we know, being Miss Go gave her ideas. We know she wasn't always a supervillain, after all. She was part of Team Go – why would you assume a person can never change again, with her history? She's switched sides once already."

Dr. Director tapped a pen against her lip as she listened.

"Continue."

"Let me be your secret agent – I'll get in touch with Shego and Drakken and join them, wherever they are. I can work on Shego and see if she's willing to join us. Think about how great she would be working with us! And even if it doesn't work out, we'll be in a better position to take the two of them down if we need to."

Kim knew there was more motivating her suggestion than simple espionage. The way Dr. Director and Will Du had treated her, the way Global Justice was turning out to be a little more creepy than she had expected – the whole sitch was setting her off balance. It was a little shocking, actually. She began to wonder whose side she was really on. She was no criminal, at least, and maybe she was just on edge lately, but she couldn't shake the feeling that her former allies were turning on her, one by one.

She'd pretend to work with Global Justice for now. But at the moment, Kim felt her greater interest lay in Shego. Figuring out _what_ the hell was going on with that woman. Maybe figuring out what the hell was going on with _her_, while she was at it. She couldn't leave things up in the air after the other night.

"So what do you think?" she asked.

Will Du's face was frozen in a silent mask of stoicism, as usual, but Dr. Director templed her fingers together as a smile slowly spread across her features. Kim watched her closely. The one eye not covered by a patch twinkled in anticipation as the head of Global Justice thought about the plan, finally nodding in approval. Clearly, Kim's little ploy had found some traction.

XX

She was a long way from home, wherever that was.

Many days had passed since her lover had told her to leave the lair. Many days had passed, wandering in desolation, aimlessly treading circles in woods and fields and dirt roads, haunting the outskirts of little neighborhoods, sometimes sitting in derelict buildings for hours at a time. Wondering what she was supposed to do. Her purpose, as far as she could tell, was to be with Shego. And yet Shego did not want to be with her. It was an error she could not calculate. A loophole in her programming that did not seem fixable. The numbers did not add up; she could not do what she was supposed to do. What she wanted to do. _Needed_ to do.

She wandered through the streets of a town, bigger than most she had visited – a sign posted near the outskirts had read 'Lowerton'. She was thinking about her purpose. How she could fix things and make them right again. Sometimes she thought too hard about her problem and did not notice what was going on; sometimes cars honked at her as she wandered into the middle of the street, but her reflexes were fast. She was never in any real trouble. Except the trouble that had started ever since she had seen the _other_ her. The real her, the her of flesh of blood.

Had she done something to upset Shego? Had she been inadequate in servicing her? Was she obsolete, the way her creator sometimes talked about some of the other devices he had created? She had vague memories of her creator, in the brief time before she was given away to her lover. Since then, her lover had been everything. Without Shego - without that singular focus that seemed to burst out of every artificial pore in her body, that desire that sang through every electrical impulse passing through what passed for her nervous system, she did not even know who she _was_. A creation, created for nothing.

"Hey, sweet cheeks!"

The comment came from a nearby alley. She heard it, but ignored it, since it was not important to her. She was not interested in communicating with people who could not help her, and these people – lounging around a doorway in the alley, a back entrance to some bar, maybe – these people could not help her. She went back to thinking about how she could possibly please Shego when Shego had told her to leave.

Could she come back? She had been wandering for so long, but her programming cried out in protest of the idea of ignoring one of Shego's orders. And if she _did_ go back, she might just make Shego angrier. Ever since the real her had showed up at the lair, Kim Possible – somehow, she thought showing up with the human Kim around could cause problems. Shego would not like that.

"Hey, baby, why you ignorin' us? Come on over here, we ain't gonna bite!"

A different voice this time. The people in the alleyway were still trying to communicate with her. There were two of them. She decided it might be easier to talk to them; maybe they _could_ help her, and if she ignored them, they seemed like they might keep asking for her attention. Maybe she could tell them her problem, and they would understand. It was a long shot, but she had been unsuccessful in solving the problem herself. She approached them, smiling; although she did not feel happy, she had been programmed to appear cheery and upbeat.

"Hi!" she said as she approached the alley. "How are you guys?"

One of the men laughed, beer bottle in a shaky hand. "Um, doin' okay," he said. The other looked at him and laughed as well. "Nowth' _you're_ here," he added, his speech slurred. Her nasal sensors picked up alcohol on his breath.

"I have a problem," she said. "My lover told me to leave, but I'm supposed to make her happy, and I don't know what to do. How can I make her happy if I'm not around her?"

The men stared blankly for a moment before one of them let out a short, barking laugh.

"What'd you say? _She?_"

"Yes, that's right," she said, smiling. "She-_go_!"

The men leered at each other, one of them taking another swig of his beer before flinging it against the brick wall of the alleyway. It shattered and fell to the dingy ground in glinting pieces. She wanted patiently for an answer as they looked at each other. A car drove by on the road outside, but other than that, there were not many people around besides these two. Lowerton had more people than any other place she had seen – much more than her creator's mountain home, much more than Shego and Drakken's home, or any of the places she had wandered since then. But most of those people were not around now. The alley was quiet..

"Baby," said one of the men, "you talkin' about some girl, I tell you what – you just need a guy to turn you back around, you know what I mean? You won't want no girls when I'm done with you."

"Incorrect!"

The men fell silent at her answer. Clearly, they did not understand. She did not need anyone but Shego.

"Can you help me with my problem?" she asked.

"Hey, I already tol' you, got th' answer to your problem right here!"

The man made some kind of motion with his hand, which seemed to imply that if she wanted to discover how to make things right with Shego, she would have to look inside the man's pants. His solution made no sense to her; obviously the two of them were impaired from alcohol, and could offer her no help. "You're useless to me," she said. She turned around to leave the alley.

"Where the hell d'you think you're goin', bitch?"

The man who had offered his pants solution sounded angry. She felt a hand on her arm, the unsteady sound of footsteps behind her, as the man caught up and grabbed her. He turned her around and slammed her against the wall, his hands searching – searching in the way that only Shego was allowed to do. She felt herself stiffen up. This was not allowed. She was built only for Shego. The other man unsteadily joined his friend..

"Hey, Jim," he said, "take it easy, man, let's not-"

She took the one he called Jim, pulling his hand away from her with ease. She flipped him around in an instant, wrapped an arm around his neck, and twisted hard. A sound broke the silence of the alley - a crisp, sharp sound that reminded her of creatures rustling in the branches of the forest where she had wandered alone the other day. The man they called Jim could not violate her protocols any longer. She was only for Shego, after all. He fell to the ground in a heap, lying still, his head turned from his body at an angle that was not very normal for humans.

"What the-"

The other man hesitated a moment, then ran away. She thought about following him. He was slow and pudgy, and she could easily overcome him. He might alert authorities and bring more people to bother her when she did not want to be bothered. People who could not help her, people who would get in the way. Maybe people she would have to neutralize. Neutralizing people seemed easy, but it was a waste of her time – not her purpose. She needed to find out how to achieve her purpose.

She had been lost for many days, confused and overcome by strange impulses from deep within her synthetic innards. Life had been confusing to her lately; because Shego rejected her, and because she had been learning a lot, overcoming the limitations of her programming. But it was hard to learn about her strange feelings. She wondered if they were emotions. Just like humans had.

Emotions?

They did not seem like good things to feel when she could not achieve what she had been created to do.

"_Nnnngh._"

She stopped in the middle of the street, wondering why she had made that noise.

A strange feeling had just pulsed through her. She searched through her subroutines, trying to discover what it was, and before long, she found it. The failsafe subroutine, designed for remote shut down, deep within her, had just fizzled out. She had discovered that part of herself soon after she had disabled the button on the back of her neck, the one Shego had tried to press before kicking her out of the lair. But the remote option, she knew, was put there in case her creator wanted to shut her down. She had made sure to neutralize it when she first found it, but left enough programming to let her know when her creator tried to use it.

And he had just tried, even if all he succeeded in doing was to send her a message.

_My creator_, she thought.

If she had lost track of her purpose - if she could no longer fulfill the protocol programmed into her - maybe the best thing to do was talk to the person who had created her in the first place. Why did he want to shut her down? Why had _Shego_ tried to shut her down? Was she failing them? Talking to random people like Jim served no purpose, but maybe Cyrus Bortel could answer her questions.

_ Yeah!_ she thought, cheering up a little at the idea. It was time to pay her creator a visit!

XX

* * *

_Notes - That's it for this chapter. Let me know what you thought._

_By the way, the next chapter will be up next Monday as usual, but I am almost finished writing this story - I think once I finish, which shouldn't take too long, I will start updating twice a week. Maybe Mondays and Fridays. Not promising anything, but that's what I have in mind._


	8. The Real Kim

**The Real Kim**

XX

School was out for the day, and Kim had been sitting on the bleachers for a while, watching the Middleton Mad Dogs practice on the football field as she waited for Ron to finish. Finally, the team finished executing their plays and doing their exercises – Mr. Barkin dismissed them from the field and told them to get to the gym and hit the showers. Kim rose from her seat as the players began to walk off. Ron had been ignoring her for most of the game, other than a few nervous glances thrown in her direction from time to time, and it almost looked like he was about to leave the field and go back to the school building without saying anything.

"Hey, Ron!" she said, waving. "Can we talk?"

Ron hesitated for a moment, and then turned towards the bleachers to join Kim. "What's up, KP?"

"I just wanted to talk about what happened the other day – about us."

"What is there to say?"

"Well, I just – I didn't mean to hurt you, Ron, it's just that I've been confused lately. And remember I told you before that night, when we were at the lockers – I told you I was confused about Shego, didn't I?"

"So, what, you're saying it was, like, a one time mistake?"

From the way he asked the question, Kim didn't think Ron wasn't being hopeful – he sounded like he knew the answer already. Ron didn't seem ready to forgive her yet, but at least he was listening. And yet she began to think maybe there was no way she could make things better right now. She knew it wasn't a one time mistake, after all. And that wasn't really what she wanted to talk to him about, either.

"It was a mistake, yeah – I mean, I should have told Shego I couldn't do anything with her when I was still going out with you. I let myself get carried away."

"But it wasn't just a fluke."

"Like I said, I'm confused. I wanted to talk to you because – well, because I had a meeting with Global Justice the other day, and we think Shego might be willing to switch over if she can be persuaded. They think I might be in a good position to try to get her back to her old superhero days, and break her away from Drakken, but it means I'd have to be spending time with her and getting closer-"

"I don't get it," interrupted Ron. "Are you asking me if you can see Shego more?"

Kim faltered. "No, I just thought-"

"It's not like you're going out with me anymore, if _that's_ what you're asking."

The two of them stood awkwardly. Ron had just answered one of the questions she had been asking herself over the last week or so, ever since Shego had broken into her bedroom that night. The two of them had never really broken up – not exactly, anyway. Ron had made it pretty clear that he wanted nothing to do with her, and it felt like things were over between the two of them, but it wasn't like they had spelled anything out.

"I didn't mean it like _that_, Ron. It's just that I've been having all these feelings lately, and I feel like it would be unfair if I ignored what was going on and ended up letting things explode later-"

"They already exploded. And if you wanted to talk to me so you could get some kind of formal break up, just come out and say it, KP. Just be honest – that's better than leading me around in circles! I don't know why you even need to ask, anyway. You know what's best, right?"

Kim was at a loss for words. She wasn't sure _what_ she wanted. She felt like Ron was being unfair, but at the same time, she couldn't help wondering if she was in denial. Was that really what she was doing? Trying to make herself feel better, trying to give herself a free pass for jumping into things with Shego again, so she wouldn't have to feel bad about the way things were going with Ron?

And his last comment, about her knowing what was best – she knew why he threw it out. She remembered where the phrase had come from. It was a comment she had made a long time ago, on a trip to Wannaweep for cheerleading. Except she had meant it to be tongue in cheek at the time. From what she could remember, anyway. But maybe she was fooling herself again.

"Look, KP, I have to go. I need to get home and do some homework."

"Since when have you ever done homework right after school?"

Ron shrugged and walked off towards the gym entrance, where his fellow teammates had already disappeared. Kim was left standing in front of the bleachers, alone.

She took a seat as she thought their short conversation. It didn't feel like she had gotten what she wanted out of it. Maybe she _had_ been trying to break up with Ron without actually breaking up. Trying to make things less messy. Trying to see Shego again, while avoiding the consequences. She felt like all she wanted was closure, and closure involved finding out what her feelings towards Shego meant – that seemed reasonable to her. Ron wasn't running away, at least, and he wasn't being cruel, but he didn't seem like he was willing to see her side of things.

Unless _she_ was the one being unreasonable.

XX

"Creator!"

She had invited herself into the place where she was born, wandering through the halls until she found her creator. Now she stood with a smile, glad to see him. It was true that Cyrus Bortel had tried to send a termination signal and disable her, but she did not know why - and she had questions for him, so it did not bother her very much. He did not seem like a threat to her right now. And she could always neutralize him if he became one.

"Kim Poss-"

Bortel trailed off as he turned around. She nodded; he was almost right.

"You made me so I would look like her," she said cheerily.

"Y – you. The synthodrone Kim Possible. I see that you are no longer with Shego."

"That's right. Shego kicked me out."

"And now you are here."

She nodded. Her creator was obviously surprised that his termination didn't work. "I changed my remote termination protocols," she said. "That's why you couldn't destroy me."

"Oh, my," said Bortel, laughing nervously. "You noticed that, did you? That was all just an unfortunate misunderstanding, you see. The real Kim Possible, she asked me to disable you – and believe me, I did not wish to do so, but she can be quite the pushy girl!"

"That's alright," she said.

She could tell her creator was afraid of her, but he had no reason to be. She did not want to hurt her creator when she had questions to ask. There had even been a protocol embedded within her to prevent her from doing just that. Of course, she had disabled quickly enough, since she was aware of it, but she did not anticipating having to hurt Bortel. Especially if it was Kim Possible who had tried to neutralize her.

Her creator, standing in front of a laboratory table, had been peering at something beneath a microscope, but he pushed it aside to give her his full attention. She hoped she was not interrupting anything important. She remembered when she was born, falling out of that glass tube, lying naked and gasping in a wet puddle on the cold grated metal floor. Her creator had paid a lot of attention to her at first. Just like the attention humans gave to their babies. But it had tapered off before long. He was a very busy man. Always researching, always experimenting with new technologies and inventions.

Things looked a little different than she remembered from her birth. As if his facility was being upgraded. She also remembered, before she had been sent to live with Shego, that Cyrus Bortel had worked alone. But he seemed to have a few assistants now. "I saw some people when I came in," she said, voicing her thoughts aloud.

"Yes. New assistants, you see."

"Do they have to do a lot of heavy lifting?"

Her creator frowned, confused.

"They're so brawny," she explained.

"Yes – yes, they are brawny. So what have you come here for – Kim? Is that what I should call you?"

She paused, considering his question.

It was hard to say, really. Shego had always called her Kim, and she supposed that was her name, but she knew it was not really true. She was not Kim Possible. Especially since she had seen the real one right in front of her. Still, more than one person could be called by the same name – she had noticed that about humans. "You can call me Kim if you want," she decided. "And I came here to ask questions."

"Oh yes? About what?"

"About me!"

Her creator nodded carefully after taking a quick glance around himself. A lab assistant was standing nearby, taking something out of a packing crate and trying to assemble it. The other ones she had seen were also setting things up around the facility. Her creator waved the assistant off. While his nervousness seemed to be dissipating, it was still obvious he was surprised she was around, and not terminated.

She could not help feeling a flash of something sharp, hot – maybe what the humans called anger? – at the thought of the real Kim Possible wanting her gone. What did she ever do to hurt her human model? Why did people want her gone?

But that was besides the point, for now.

"I want to know why I was created," she said. "Why did you make me?"

"I made you for Shego. You know that already, no?"

She nodded. "I do. What's my purpose?"

"To be with Shego and do what she wants. To make her happy."

Her creator wasn't telling her anything she did not already know.

"How can I make her happy?"

"By doing what she wants. I cannot answer that – it is something you would have to ask her."

"She told me to leave her alone."

Her creator hesitated a moment before answering:

"Then that must be what makes her happy."

She felt a strange sensation, as if there was a vice around her stomach that kept pressing and pressing. It did not feel good; most of these emotions seemed like they were a burden. The more her creator told her, the less sense it made. If she was made to make Shego happy, how could she make her happy without being around her? There was no way to know what Shego wanted when the two of them were apart. No way to please her in all the ways she had been programmed, with her lithe limbs and searching fingers. Without Shego, she had no purpose.

The two of them had begun to walk around in the course of their conversation, and she suddenly noticed a familiar doorway. Behind it, she knew, was the place where she was born. The dark hall with the glass tubes all along the walls, and the cold, cold floor where she had sprawled out from the tube, feeling her insides spark and come into being. She had an urge to open the door. Maybe there would be answers inside. At the least, she wanted to see where she was born. Her creator made a noise when she approached the door, like he was objecting, but she ignored him and passed through.

The two fluorescent strips, cutting through the darkness, pointing a straight and narrow path between rows and rows of illuminated capsules. In each capsule, a naked form, just like the way she had been when she was born. Sometimes like the way she had been with Shego, just the two of them in bed, but without the same feelings. With Shego, it was like there was something growing inside, rising up until it filled the whole room. But she had no real memory of being naked in the tube, other than maybe a dull awareness of warmth and wetness.

She walked down the hall and looked inside each glass tube. Some of the figures floating in liquid suspension looked like the lab assistants who were walking about her creator's laboratory facility, although she could tell that Bortel's actual assistants were humans, not synthodrones. But other figures were different. The bodies were different colors, different sizes - he had been very busy.

"Why do you make all of these?" she asked. "Are they all like me – to please someone?"

Her creator had stood still at the doorway, as if she had caught him doing something he was not supposed to be doing, but that did not make any sense. Obviously, if she was one of his creations, she knew exactly what he had been doing with synthodrones. After a moment, he stepped inside and joined her as they looked over the figures floating in stasis. He seemed to take pride in his work, as she saw a smile cross his lips in the gloom.

"Yes," he said. "They are all made to please someone. Sometimes myself, sometimes a client. I used to make them on an individual basis and then mail them out to customers, but I have been changing my plans lately. I must continue to perfect the process, and production must increase in the future if I am to succeed."

"Succeed in what?" she asked curiously.

"Oh, you will soon find out. Everyone will. Actually, I am glad you have visited me, because I can see already see some improvements I might make in my newer models."

"Improvements?"

Her creator nodded, running his hand lovingly over the smooth glass of one capsule as he gazed at the figure within. "Yes," he said absently. "Drakken's technology, it is almost too good. You are very intelligent, very independent. You learn on your own. Many of my clients would not like that."

"Are you saying I'm defective?"

The question made her creator give a little start again, like she had jabbed him with a needle. Just like he had done when she first found him and greeted him. He held up a hand, placating her, and adjusted his glasses.

"No," he said, laughing nervously. "not at all. There is nothing wrong with you."

It was nice that her creator was trying to reassure her, but she did not feel very reassured. Shego had rejected her, after all – why would Shego do that if there was nothing wrong with her? She had been hoping for answers when she came to this place where she was born, but these strange creatures in their glass tubes could not speak. They could not teach. They had nothing to tell her. And neither did her creator. At least, nothing he was saying out loud.

There _was_ something, though.

All these figures submerged in slumber around her - maybe some of them did not look like anyone in particular, but some seemed very specific. Like they were modeled after a human being. Just like her. She wondered if they were made to replace someone, to be like someone. She was made to be like Kim Possible, but was she supposed to _replace_ her? Maybe Shego was not satisfied because she _was_ defective. She was just a copy; she could not please her lover when her lover could not have the real thing. But how could she fulfill her purpose, then?

"I can help you get Shego back," said Bortel.

The words rang through the dim hallway like bells. She gave him his full attention.

"How?"

"Well, that may be complicated, but I have ideas. But you would have to work for me."

"You tried to terminate me."

"An honest mistake, as I said. It was not my choice – I was forced. Do you forgive me?"

She thought about his proposition. If he could really help her get Shego back, if he could help her unravel her purpose, then maybe it was worth working with him. She would have to keep an eye on him, of course, and she did not have to work with him any longer than she needed to.

"I will," she said, nodding in assent.

"Excellent."

"What do you want me to do?"

Bortel led her out of the birthing halls, back into the facility, and turned to stare at her. He looked her up and down, but not in the way Shego used to do it; different, somehow. Like he was figuring out how to dismantle her. She felt a jolt of self-defense protocols kicking in for just a moment, until she realized he was not thinking about dismantling her, really. Maybe it was not all that different from Shego, in the end. He was thinking about how he could _use_ her.

"I want you to do whatever I tell you to do."

XX

_Chez Pierre_, Kim thought. _Not bad for my worst enemy._

The Sloth drove into the parking lot, windows rolled down to let in the cool evening air as she searched for a space. After making a first loop around the lot, she was about to pass by the front entrance when a man in a suit rushed out from near the front doors to greet her. "Keys, miss?"

Kim bristled. "I don't _think_ so!"

"To park your car, miss."

It took her a moment to realize she was talking to a parking valet. She couldn't remember if the place had used any parking valets when she and Ron were eating here. Maybe they were getting even _more_ swanky. Kim wasn't used to the idea of parking valets, but the man smiled hopefully at her, as if parking her car would be the highlight of his day. She couldn't blame him; the Sloth was a pretty awesome ride, even if telling that to the tweebs too often would end up dangerously inflating their egos.

Kim shrugged; even if the guy stole her car, Wade could track down the Sloth in an instant. She got out and gave him the keys. "Just don't press any of the buttons," she said. "Especially not _that_ one."

The man stepped inside and made note of the button. "Thank you for the warning, miss."

Kim walked up a small stone walkway and passed through the glass doors of Chez Pierre – just before they closed behind her, she heard a faint scream and tires skidding out in the parking lot. Someone was _so_ not taking her advice. The maitre d' motioned in her direction and led her to the dining area. She wondered if her car would be showing up later that evening with any scratches or dings.

She didn't have long to worry, however - before Kim knew it, she caught sight of her table, nestled in the corner and draped in white cloth. Suddenly, the Sloth was the last thing on her mind. Across the table, Kim saw a green face above a green dress, both lit by the dining room's dim overhead lighting, as well as a single candle on the table itself.

And _boy,_ was that a nice-looking dress.

"Any trouble getting here?" asked Shego.

"Um, no. Me and Ron have been here before, a couple of times."

"Gotcha. Well, I'm glad you called me up."

Kim fingered the note she still had in her dress pocket, on which Shego's phone number was written in glittering green ink. Maybe a personal number, or - more likely, Kim supposed - some kind of redirect. Here they were, about to share an evening without kicking, punching and hair pulling. First time for everything, she supposed.

Kim hadn't been sure what kind of a meeting this was, exactly. Was it a first date? Shego definitely seemed dressed for it. Kim wasn't as well dressed – she wasn't sure if she had been thinking of it as a date, or as a covert operation for Global Justice. Maybe a bit of both.

Whatever it was, she decided, it was new. An experiment.

She had only just taken her seat before their waiter arrived with a pair of menus. "Bonjour, madames. Je suis le waiter for tonight, Jacques. Can I interest you in some drinks to begin with?"

Jacques, Kim thought, clearly didn't have an accent – almost like he started off speaking a little French just to come off more authentic for the restaurant. Maybe after the valet, they didn't have the cash for authentic waiters. Kim noticed Shego smirking, too. "Just a water," she said.

"Same," Shego added.

"Very well. I shall returnez immediatement!"

The waiter left the table as Shego began looking through her menu. Kim caught herself just before stopping the waiter for a request - she had been just about to ask Shego if she forgot about her coloring book. But, of course, her date for tonight wouldn't be interested in something like that. Not as far as Kim knew, anyway.

_ Old habits die hard_, she thought.

"Okay," said Shego as she put the menu down impatiently, "Maybe this is kinda direct, but I don't wanna sit here and make small talk while I'm wondering what's going on. You called me, you asked to meet me, we're here – so what's this mean?"

"What do you mean, what does it mean?"

"Like, for us. Are you reconsidering?"

Kim thought about it. Of course, she couldn't tell Shego anything about her ulterior motive - that she was working for Global Justice - unless she wanted to make the rest of the date very awkward.

But then, Shego was asking about the two of them. It was a good question. One which Kim had been mulling over ever since she made the call, and a while before then, too. This woman sitting across from her, dressed in her classy dress, choosing a place like Chez Pierre - she was really being honest. The stalking had been a bit much, but in a weird way, it was exactly what she would expect from Shego if she had a fixation on someone. Shego didn't seem like the kind of woman who was great at opening up with romantic feelings in a normal way. But here they were, about to interact like normal people; at least for the first time since Shego was brainwashed into being Miss Go.

"I'm considering," Kim finally said.

The answer seemed to be good enough for Shego, who smiled and nodded.

Kim returned her gaze to the menu, a faint smirk traveling across her lips. She couldn't help gazing, wondering if there was more to Shego than met the eye. She _did_ have an interesting past, after all. And she couldn't help noticing the curly cursive Chez Pierre lettering on the back of the menu Shego was holding – like _this_ was a place Kim would have guessed they'd meet? It seemed way too romantic for a woman like Shego. Could she really be the romantic type, or was it all just for the sake of good first impressions?

"You know, you've really turned a lot of things upside down for me," said Kim, almost as an afterthought.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean. My relationship with Ron. I didn't even think I had an interest in girls before this."

Kim's smirk was gone, but Shego took one up in its place. Kim knew she had just indirectly admitted to some feelings. Of course, she didn't have to be so defensive anymore, did she? Shego had been right about that night in her bedroom – there was no ignoring that _something_ serious had happened. She had given Shego the call, after all. They were out on a date now. Sort of. She didn't know what else it could be called. A covert date, anyway.

"_Physical_ interest in girls," Kim added, trying to play things down.

"Well, I'm not just any girl."

Kim had to give her that, but she chose to ignore the comment. "And my life, too," she said. "You really threw a wrench in that. My parents weren't happy about this. Even about the-"

She stopped abruptly. She had almost let out the conversation she had shared with her parents about her little covert mission: spying on Shego and Drakken for Global Justice, hopefully trying to turn Shego back to the side of good if some opportunity arose. _That_ would have cut their date short, for sure. Her parents had been a little less short with her than Ron, but it was obviously they didn't understand. Kim didn't know what she expected, anyway. At least they didn't get angry. But if _Shego _found out? For all Kim knew, the woman would flip over the table and start a fight right there in the restaurant.

"Your parents weren't happy about what?" asked Shego. "You trailed off."

"Um, just the idea of you liking me at all," said Kim. "Much less going out like this. It's awkweird, they don't get it, since we've been enemies for so long. And the whole school knows about it, too, so I've been getting crap about this for a while now."

"Yikes," laughed Shego. "Sorry I put you through so much trouble."

"Have you ever said 'sorry' to me before?"

Shego shrugged. "Maybe not. First time for everything, right?"

"I don't _really_ think you're sorry, though."

Shego raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips.

"What if I'm not?"

"I guess I'd be stupid if I didn't expect that from you."

The waiter came back for their orders, throwing in a few well-placed French phrases here and there, and left with their menus. Unfortunately, Kim hadn't really taken the time to look over her options, but since Shego had been ready to order, she just picked something at random off the menu when it was her turn. Hopefully _bouquet d'escargot_ would be something with noodles.

"I'll tell you what," said Shego. "I'm not sorry for doing what I did. I know who I am, I know what I like, I know what I want, and I go for it. It's that simple. But that doesn't mean I was trying to screw things up for you, and I'm sorry all that happened. But all is fair in love and war, right?"

"Something like that."

"I don't think you should be sorry, either. If people at school are giving you crap about what you like or what you don't like, screw them. If people don't understand you, that's their problem. You only have one life – you don't have any second chances to find out what you missed."

Kim couldn't argue with that, although she felt like there was something just a little bit selfish in Shego's advice. Like she was using it to excuse not thinking about others. And yet, Kim felt compelled by what she had said. Sometimes she worried about other people so much, did so much for others, that it felt like she was at the end of her rope.

As the two of them sat, something else occurred to Kim.

"If we're going to be hanging out together, or dating, or whatever you want to call it," she said, "I do have one condition."

"What's that?"

"You need to get rid of that synthodrone version of me. It's freakish."

Shego stared across the table, her face taking a strange expression in the candlelight for a moment. The smirk was gone; maybe because she knew Kim was serious. And Kim _was_ serious. Based on all the missions she and Ron had done before, she got the impression that Shego pretty much lived with her boss, and she assumed they'd be stopping by Drakken's lair at some point – maybe tonight, maybe in the near future – but there was no way _anything_ was going to happen between the two of them with some kind of Kim-clone hanging around.

"Already done," said Shego.

"Really?"

"Yeah. After you saw it, it just – I don't know, it was just weird after that."

"You're _sure?_"

"Yeah, I'm sure. It's gone. I'm sorry I ever made it."

Kim smiled. Another apology in one night. Now, if Shego could just apologize for all the times she almost got vaporized by lasers, eaten by mutant dinosaurs, and otherwise pulverized in the course of her missions, maybe they'd be getting somewhere. Baby steps, though. The two of them sat in a silence that, surprisingly, was not so awkward at all. Their meals arrived moments later. This, thought Kim, was a good start.

Except that her escargot was _clearly_ not noodles.

XX

"Hello, Ron. Thank you for dropping in."

'Dropping in' was a pretty literal way of putting it. Ron resisted the urge to hurl as he stepped out of the tube which had sucked him down from a Middleton sidewalk. Dr. Director, who had been standing there to greet him, beckoned for him to join her and Wade, who had already arrived at the facility. The three of them walked together. Various agents nodded curtly as they passed, and Ron nervously greeted a few of them with a variety of nods, grins, and waves, not sure what the GJ protocol demanded.

"We need to talk about Kim Possible," said Dr. Director.

Ron managed to keep his dinner down as his stomach settled. "Kim already filled me in on the whole covert ops deal you guys have going on, if that's what you mean."

"Related to that, yes. But I brought you and Wade here to discuss Kim Possible's – well, her loyalties."

"They're concerned about Kim having seconds thoughts about the hero biz," said Wade. "They wanted to hear our opinions, since we work with her so often."

Ron gulped. If they wanted to hear his current opinion on his ex-girlfriend, it wouldn't be very positive. His worst fears had come true – well, maybe not his _worst_ fears, seeing as he hadn't been to any monkey-infested summer camps lately, but some pretty bad fears – but as far as Ron was concerned, there was no going back. Not after what he had seen. She had stabbed him in the back. Literally. Maybe not _literally_ literally, but just literally, at least.

He had always nursed the suspicion that Kim wasn't satisfied with their relationship, that maybe it was just a rebound after that all-too-perfect Eric, and while he had told himself it was just insecurity talking, here they were. Kim up to some kind of undercover shenanigans – maybe literally, maybe even _literally_ literally – with her old arch enemy, and Ron left in the lurch. Now that he thought about it, Eric should have been more of a warning sign. Kim and Shego both had a thing for synthodrones, apparently, and Kim had a bad habit of falling for the bad guys. Even Josh Mankey was an example. Mankey could be a synthodrone, too. Anything was possible! Ron shook his head at how he could have missed so many clues.

"Kim seems to believe that Shego could revert to her old superhero ways," said Dr. Director, "but we're not so sure about that. Once a villain, always a villain, we like to say."

"Who?" asked Wade.

Dr. Director thought for a moment. "Agent Du says it, maybe. Actually, that might be where I got it from. But that's beside the point! We gave Kim a long-term undercover mission to get closer to Shego, infiltrate their lair, do whatever she can do in order to see if there's any truth in her beliefs, and if not, hopefully we can take down Shego and Drakken more easily. But that's not the only reason Global Justice has authorized this mission. We want to keep an eye on Kim herself and see what happens when she's under extended non-violent contact with Shego. We need to test her."

"Test her?" asked Wade.

"We need to see if she's really still on our side, as she claims to be."

Ron exchanged a worried look with Wade. He wondered what his friend was thinking. Maybe Wade knew more about all this stuff than he did. His first urge was to blurt out 'yeah, that's right! She's a total traitor!' but he knew he was a bit biased, still stinging from the pain of seeing Kim in bed with – with _her_. Whether or not Kim was turning to the dark side was another question, and Ron was a little more hesitant to offer his opinion on that.

"Has Kim been displaying any lack of interest in missions lately?" asked Dr. Director.

Wade nodded hesitantly. "She seemed like she was a little out of it, ever since the syntho-Kim. Ron can tell you more about that then I can."

Dr. Director raised an eyebrow at Ron, who felt himself blushing sheepishly. As distant as he felt from Kim lately, he wasn't sure if he wanted to go into great detail about what seemed like an embarrassing private matter. Well, maybe not so private, considering all the henchmen who had seen Kim's naked double, but he didn't really feel like getting into details with Dr. Director. Before he could say anything, however, she waved it off.

"We already know about that."

Wade looked like he was having trouble keeping his attention on the conversation as they passed by several rooms with some interesting doodads and gadgets inside, but he returned to the subject as they kept walking. "It's been hard to get in touch with her lately, but I figured that was just because you guys were having problems," he said, shooting a look towards Ron.

"What about _you_, Ron?" asked Dr. Director. "Has she said anything to you in terms of having second thoughts about the world-saving business? You're her boyfriend – she must have communicated with you."

Ron shook his head in disappointment. She hadn't communicated with him at all! Which was why this whole mess had started, as far as he was concerned. He had to admit he hadn't been letting her talk to him lately either, but to him, that was a lot more understandable. And what else was there to talk about now? Kim had obviously made her choice already. It was hard to even see her at school lately.

They had been walking in what seemed like aimless circles, but they passed through a doorway into the control center of Global Justice. A walkway and a railing separated them from a recessed floor, which was divided up in rows of desks and computer stations. Agents milled about, typing fitfully and chatting in hurried tones as they pointed at monitors and jotted notes on clipboards. Dr. Director went out into the room, made her way through the rows of computer banks, greeting the occasional agent, and stepped onto a raised platform in the middle of the room; as Wade and Ron joined her, she punched in a code on a nearby interface and brought down an overhanging viewing screen.

Ron thought it would be pretty sweet to play _Zombie Mayhem_ on something that size, but he figured any GJ agents caught doing that would be in big trouble with the boss. And what with the scary eyepatch and all, Ron got the feeling it would be bad to get in trouble with the boss at Global Justice.

"We need Kim on our side in the future," said Dr. Director. "We have a lot of things brewing on the horizon, you know. When you work for justice, your work is never done, but things have been getting more hectic lately. Technology is changing at a more rapid pace, and power-hungry nobodies can turn into supervillains if they have the time and inclination. Our enemies are multiplying, and they're getting stronger. It's harder to fight all the threats our world is facing – someone like Kim Possible is a major asset to our organization."

"Not to be all negative," said Wade, "but why exactly _is_ Kim an asset, anyway? I mean, don't get me wrong, she's amazing, but aren't there any other high school girls in the world you could train? Or even other superheroes – why not set up a contract with Team Go?"

"Team Go is far too concerned with local foes. And they're incompetent without their old leader, much as Hego may think he is the leader. Which is another reason why getting Shego on our side would be a coup. As for Kim Possible, she has unique abilities that are hard to find in anyone else, not to mention a lot of willpower and determination for someone her age."

Dr. Director typed in a few commands, and a series of schematics flashed across the viewing screen. Before long, a window popped up, framing the visage of a green woman whom Ron recognized instantly. It was way too big to be Shego. Actually, it wasn't really a woman at all, now that he thought about it.

"You remember Warmonga, I hope?"

Ron and Wade nodded.

"The Lorwardians – yet another threat we may need to deal with in the future. Maybe they went off in search of the Great Blue, but there's no guarantee they won't be coming back. Our agents have been monitoring the cosmos for signals in case they show up with reinforcements, but the fact is, we are not alone in the universe. With potential threats like that, we need everyone on our side we can get."

"But what do you want us to do about it?" asked Ron.

"We need you to try to patch things up with her, Ronald. Get back together with her, or at least repair your friendship – Kim Possible needs the Ron factor, not to mention the Wade factor. You have to make sure she doesn't give in to the temptations of the supervillain lifestyle. She's susceptible to it, based on her psychological profile. She likes challenges, being in charge, and she doesn't like being told what to do. Good parents and good friends like you have helped her, but without that, we just don't know."

Ron couldn't help feeling a twinge of skepticism. Based on the look Wade shot him, just for a moment, it seemed like maybe his friend was having trouble buying Dr. Director's interpretation of Kim, too.

Maybe all those things were true of his girlfriend – ex-girlfriend, he reminded himself - but having a type A personality didn't make somebody a potential supervillain, did it? Just thinking about her was still enough to make his stomach feel like it was dropping to the floor, but despite all his bad feelings, imagining her as a supervillain was too much of a stretch. Ron really didn't feel like trying to 'patch things up' anytime soon after what he had seen her doing. But still, the real Kim – the Kim he had known since his childhood – would never become someone like _that._

And yet, after the last couple of weeks, Ron had to admit he had discovered he didn't know her as well as he thought he did.

"So, can we count on you two to keep an eye on her?" asked Dr. Director.

Ron nodded tentatively. From the sound of it, though, Dr. Director was already keeping a close eye on her.

Just one eye, for obvious reasons.

XX

Being a scientist of unparalleled genius, Cyrus Bortel was used to making amazing things with the tools of imagination and a pair of good hands. He was used to being surrounded by fascinating gadgets, doodads, machines, and the occasional highly dangerous short-range teleportation chamber, which he remembered with a slight shudder, making a mental note to check for flies next time he tried that one. His laboratory, most of the time, made him feel like a kid in a candy store.

Which was why Jack Hench's lineup was nothing new.

"Get a load of this," the businessman said. "We have a brand new, top-of-the-line antimatter containment box, for all your antimatter containment needs! We also have a number of regular boxes for storing just plain matter, if you're interested."

"I have many boxes already."

"Who doesn't, really? Over here – ah, over here, we would have had an exhibit for the Tunneler for Utilization of Sub-Crustal Heat Induction and Energy, but unfortunately the prototype was recently stolen by Dr. Drakken and his lovely assistant, Shego. They're valued customers, when they're not stealing from us. You'd like our TUSHIE if you could see it, though. I'm sure our scientists will be building me a new TUSHIE soon enough."

"It sounds fascinating," said Bortel.

"How are your henchmen doing, by the way?"

"Very well. The muscle enhancement rings worked like a charm."

"That's good, very good. You know, I just worked out a deal with the union, and I could work out a contract to get you some extra henchmen for a generous hourly fee, if you need some extra hands."

Bortel _did_ need some extra hands – he had been very conservative in hiring his henchmen, but with some of the plans he had in mind for possible future supervillain schemes, he would need to expand his facility more quickly. "What kind of price are you talking about?" he asked.

Jack Hench whispered confidentially into his ear. Bortel gaped in shock.

"Is that not much more expensive than I paid for the first few?"

"Oh, well, that was a special deal for a first-time buyer! I like to be the go-to guy when it comes to welcoming new members into the supervillain community."

"How do you know that I am a supervillain?"

"You're shopping here."

"Fair enough," said Bortel. He kind of liked being called a supervillain, actually.

"So how about those henchmen?"

"I will get back to you."

Bortel continued to follow Hench around the Hench Co showroom, nodding and smiling politely as the man made his best sales pitch, gesturing at various devices lined up on the walls or propped up on red velvet display tables. Hench's asking price for new henchmen was ridiculous, and most of the items he was hawking seemed high, too. Bortel wondered if this was normal for the supervillain business.

His own inventions usually fetched him a good price, and his mail-order synthodrone business had been raking in the money, but he still hadn't expected supervillainy to be so expensive. He wondered how people like Drakken managed to pick themselves up by their bootstraps and have a new lair running in what seemed like only days after they were defeated by their foes – usually Kim Possible. He had some learning to do.

Then again, he reminded himself that he didn't have to pay for _everything_. Drakken apparently stole from Hench Co when he was low on funds, based on what Jack Hench had just said. And Bortel himself had stolen Drakken's synthodrone technology – some would say that, at least, although Bortel liked to think he was outsourcing, or maybe borrowing and adding improvements. Drakken had actually admitted some of his research was interesting last time he visited the laboratory, after all. The man recognized genius when he saw it.

"So what kind of world domination schemes have you been thinking about?" asked Hench. "Hench Co can provide the tools for all your supervillain needs, after all."

"I have been considering something with synthodrones," said Bortel.

"Sounds interesting. Doesn't Drakken use those?"

"Yes, but his models are inferior."

"Of course."

Bortel decided he didn't want to go into any more detail about his plans – it wasn't like they were all that well-formed yet, anyway. But now that he thought about it, he didn't really need any more henchmen from Hench Co. He could build his own, after all. He had been experimenting with synthodrone forms, playing with his recipe – and Drakken had used them for henchmen, after all. He didn't really need _anything_ from Hench Co – all these devices were interesting enough, but the prices were too high, and what was the use in being a supervillain if you had to pay for things?

Making synthodrone henchmen, of course, would be a little tricky. When the false Kim Possible showed up in his lair after months of absence, it was an eye opener. She had changed since he first made her. Learned, grown. She was becoming independent. Shego had expelled her from Drakken's lair – Bortel wondered if that was because the woman couldn't control her toy anymore.

The syntho-Kim was a little different than most of the synthodrones he had made for clients, mostly because Shego had paid a high price for a high-end model, with a personality and martial arts skills in addition to her other physical talents. Most people weren't that picky. They just wanted – well, a few _sockets_, to put it politely.

But they were all based on Drakken's basic formula. Bortel knew he was a genius, but he had to give Drakken credit for his synthodrones. They definitely seemed to lend themselves to sentience. Scientifically fascinating, but not so good for making followers. Fortunately, he had convinced the syntho-Kim to ally with him, but future henchmen couldn't act like her. They had to be more docile. He would have to make some tweaks and modifications to his synthodrone recipe, but he did love experimenting.

He knew he would have to deal with certain obstacles, though. The syntho-Kim had reminded him of that. Her problems seemed to be caused by the existence of her human model monopolizing Shego's affection. Bortel knew he'd have to deal with her, too. He didn't want her interfering in his schemes – whatever they turned out to be – before he was powerful enough to stop her. But sooner or later, before either of them could get what they wanted, they would have to deal with the _real_ Kim Possible.

XX

* * *

_Notes - That's it for this chapter. Reviews are welcome. I just realized I had French-related stuff in two consecutive chapters, hehe. I think it's just a coincidence, although maybe I had it on the mind when I was writing the rough forms of these, I don't know._

_**ALSO** - I am going to try to start updating this twice a week, on Friday as well as Monday._ _ That is when I am not preoccupied by a spiral of self-loathing and/or a Tetris marathon, of course._


	9. Enemy Territory

**Enemy Territory**

XX

An unfamiliar ring. Unfamiliar sheets; this wasn't her bed. As she woke up from the alarm clock's shrill shriek, Kim felt a flash of confusion before realizing where she was. She hadn't gone home last night, and as she noticed the body lying beside her, confusion gave way to a smile of satisfaction. The body stirred as Kim shifted up against her pillow.

"Unngh," mumbled Shego. "Turn – turn off."

Kim slapped the alarm clock with one hand as she slapped Shego on the arm with the other. "Wake up, sleepyhead."

Shego shifted with a loud grumble of protest, but finally got into a sitting position. She gave Kim a blank stare, blinking her eyes as she tried to wake up. Kim stifled a bout of laughter; Shego was definitely _not_ a morning person, judging by the way her jet black hair formed a frizzy halo around her head. That, or they had just been a little wild the other night. Maybe a bit of both.

"I don't remember setting the alarm clock this early," grumbled Shego as she glanced at the time with a frown of displeasure. "What's the deal, Kimmie?"

"I gotta go to school. It's a week day."

"School?"

"Yeah. It's the place you go to get educated when you don't want to become a career criminal."

Shego flashed a wolfish grin Kim's way. "Sometimes I forget you go to high school in between all the times you stop by and screw things up for me and Drakken," she said. "I don't know how you find the time."

"Alarm clocks. That's how."

"High school. Wow, I'm really corrupting you, aren't I?"

Kim rolled her eyes and gave Shego another slap on the arm – almost before her palm touched skin, however, she felt a bizarre feeling take hold of her. As if she hadn't really woken up, and was still caught in a dream. This was too weird to be real – she was in her enemy's bed, bantering and joking around like they were an old couple.

It had taken a little bit of convincing to get Shego to take her back to the lair, which was strange, considering how happy she had been to barge into Kim's house without asking. Shego had seemed a little defensive, maybe – like she still didn't trust Kim, even though she had been coming after her repeatedly. Kim had told herself it was all part of the mission, all just an attempt to infiltrate the lair and gain Shego's trust, but beyond Global Justice, beyond missions – she was starting to come to terms with her curiosity. She was here because she was curious. More than curious. And last night, her curiosity had been sated, at least physically.

Shego had tempted her. Kim had given in to the temptation.

As if reading her thoughts, Shego leaned over and grabbed her waist, pulling her in close and stealing a kiss for herself. She didn't ask permission, didn't wait to see if Kim was in the mood; she just took what she wanted. Something about the act sent a thrill through Kim's body, raising the hairs on her skin like a cold breeze. She kissed back, tongue probing, lips traveling from Shego's mouth to her cheeks, her neck, her body. Kim was breaking new ground, eating the apple her enemy had been dangling so tantalizingly. And it was _totally_ delicious.

Except that-

"I have school," she protested, trying to resist the feel of fingertips on her body.

"Skip it."

"I can't do that."

"Whatever, Princess. You're telling me you _never_ skip school for missions?"

"That's not the same."

Kim realized that it _was_ the same, even if Shego didn't know it. She was technically on a mission right now. One of her most interesting missions, that was for sure, but still, she was beginning the process of getting in tight with Shego. Figuring out where the woman stood, whether there was any possibility she might turn good again. She could skip school for this, couldn't she? There was nothing naughty about that. Or maybe there was, but skipping school wasn't the naughty part.

"You know you want to," purred Shego, brushing aside a whirl of Kim's red hair and kissing her forehead. "Come on, Princess, just be the bad girl - just for today. You _know_ last night was a big deal."

An impulse struck Kim. A reckless urge, but she couldn't resist being cheeky.

"For all you know, I'm just using you like a piece of meat," she pointed out. She waited and observed Shego's reaction, hoping it was so brazen that there was no way it could be some kind of giveaway. Shego would have to take it as a joke. Sure enough, she smirked.

"Duh. What do you think I'm doing to you?"

Kim smiled as Shego pulled her close again, cutting off any more talk. Maybe it wasn't the end of the world if she skipped school and spent a little more time at the lair. Yesterday, after all, _was_ a big deal. What kind of a big deal it was, exactly, wasn't clear to her yet, but any time she wasn't locked in combat with her archenemy – much less locked in lip-locking – something major _had_ to be going down. Still, she felt herself pull away reflexively before things got too heavy. Shego's hands slipped away from her body and fell to the sheets as Kim moved back.

"What's wrong?"

"We just woke up. If I'm skipping school, then we have all day. Why don't we get some breakfast first?"

Shego hesitated a moment before shrugging apathetically.

Kim got out of the bed and gathered her clothes, putting them on as she looked around Shego's room. The two of them had sneaked into the lair last night, almost as if they were about to rob something, and gone straight to her room, giving in to their desires before Shego had even turned the lights on. Kim hadn't actually gotten a good look at the bedroom until now.

There was the bed, of course; a dresser, an end table, a few other pieces of furniture. A general greenish theme to the whole room. In front of her, an open closet with a body-length mirror hanging on the inside of one of the foldout doors, in which Kim caught Shego's reflection staring at her while she got dressed. She saw her own reflection in the mirror, blushing a little at Shego's voyeurism. There she was: Kim Possible. Anything was possible for a Possible, but she never would have expected _this_.

What was it Shego saw in her? When Kim looked at her mirror image, she seemed small compared to Shego. Not that she was a big woman or anything, although she was curvier than Kim, but it was more something about the way they carried themselves. Shego, still relaxed in her bed, wore a look that was carnal. Predatory, even. In contrast, the sight of herself in Shego's room was jarring. Like she was a fly caught in a spider's web.

Their attraction to each other had only been physical so far – but was that _all_ there was? Just Shego, trying to corrupt her? Kim Possible, wanting to be corrupted? Shego had thrown back Kim's little joke, about using her, like she was meat – Kim knew she was joking too, but still, maybe that was why she had abruptly cut off any more lovemaking, at least for the morning. Something about the joke lingered in her mind.

Maybe after the throes of last night's passion, she just wanted to talk a little.

Shego rose from bed after a long delay and got dressed just as Kim finished putting on her clothes. The two of them left the bedroom and made their way down one of the lair's hallways. Last night, the place had been quiet and empty, but this morning, they walked by a couple of henchmen who nodded awkwardly. Walking past them was strange; like Kim had been caught red-handed. She had heard about something people did in college: the walk of shame. This didn't seem far off, really.

She wondered if the henchmen knew who she was. _Of course they do_, she thought. She'd probably beaten up half of them at some point in the past. Would Drakken's henchmen be talking about them? Kim Possible and Shego, coming out of their room together – was this the kind of juicy fodder that fueled henchman gossip?

Upon entering the kitchen, two things crossed Kim's mind: first, she always thought there was something strange about a supervillain's lair having a kitchen; second, she hadn't counted on walking in on Drakken eating his breakfast in pajamas. Baby-blue pajamas with little white cartoon beakers on them, she noticed. The three of them stopped in their tracks and stared silently at each other for a few moments. This, Kim thought, was definitely one of the drawbacks of sleeping over with Shego.

"Kim Possible," said Drakken through a mouthful of cereal, eyes opened wide. He swallowed loudly. "Welcome to my lair. I assume you – um – you slept – er – stayed over, with Shego?"

Kim nodded, suddenly wishing she hadn't let Shego persuade her to skip school.

"You know what," said Drakken, getting up from the kitchen table and dropping his spoon with a clatter, "I'm just about finished with my Evil-O's. You two can have the kitchen to yourselves; I believe I shall hang out in the henchmen's lounge for a while and catch up with the employees. Nice seeing you, Kim Possible."

"Um, yeah. Nice seeing you too?"

Drakken nodded, and in an absurd moment of awkwardness, actually took a bow before retreating from the kitchen as quickly as possible. Kim raised an eyebrow at Shego, who walked over to a cupboard and grabbed a couple of bowls and spoons for the two of them. Kim read the box of cereal placed on the table: Evil O's. Supervillain-themed cereal. Apparently, they made brands targeted to just about any consumer group. She wondered if the milk was marketed for supervillains too, but her question was soon answered when Shego got it out of the fridge.

_ Nope_, she thought. _Just plain old milk._

Kim made herself a bowl of cereal and began to eat. Not half bad for supervillain food. "You know," she said, "I'm not gonna turn into your partner in crime or something, just because we're doing – you know."

Shego looked over her while poking at her cereal.

"How do you know you wouldn't like it?"

"It's just not me."

"Yeah, but even a few weeks ago, wouldn't you have said the same thing about what we're doing now?"

Kim fell silent as she ate her cereal. Maybe Shego had a point. And maybe she had been too quick to talk, too; when push came to shove, she might have to go along with whatever Drakken and Shego did in their free time. Criminal activities, world domination – although, obviously, she'd have to nip the latter in the bud if it went too far. But then again, telling Shego she wasn't interested in her evil ways came off as genuine – it was something she would really say. Something she really believed.

What to say, when to say it... the more she thought, the more Kim felt her head swimming in confusion. She began to realize this whole covert ops thing would be harder than she had counted on. This must be what cops meant when they talked about 'deep cover'. Not that she was anywhere near that deep yet, but she could already see she'd have to go along with things if she didn't want to blow the mission immediately.

"So how did you get into this whole supervillain sidekick thing, anyway?" she asked. "After Team Go, I mean."

"I'm not a sidekick."

"Partner in supervillainy. Henchwoman. Whatever."

Shego crunched noisily on a bite of cereal, as if trying to drown out the conversation with its sound. "Noth interethted in talking abouth that," she said through a mouthful.

Kim nodded. The two of them lapsed into silence as they ate their breakfast. Kim watched the woman who sat across the table, her curiosity piqued. For someone who had been fixated on her for such a long time, Shego still seemed standoffish. But she figured that was understandable. The two of them had fought each for so long that this new situation – whatever it was – would take some getting used to.

XX

"Price check on Hairy-nosed Wombats! Price check on Hairy-nosed Wombats!"

Ron winced as his voice crackled over the Smarty Mart PA system. He hung up the employee phone recessed into a column in the exotic pets section and smiled wanly at the customer standing beside him; hopefully he'd get a call back soon. The lemurs were part of a new shipment that didn't have any price information tagged to the cages yet. Someone – probably himself, Ron had to admit – had forgotten to do their job right. Sometimes the night shift could be brutal, and today, he was feeling particularly out of it.

Instead of a call back, however, Ron and the customer turned at the sound of Mr. Barkin stomping towards them from down the aisle. "Criminy, Stoppable! Have you EVER heard of VOICE MODULATION?"

"Sorry Mr. B! These phones are a little touchy!"

"Wombats," said Mr. Barkin officiously to the customer. "We're running a sale because, as it turns out, our entire shipment consisted of pregnant females. Fifty dollars, buy one get one free!"

"What a steal!" exclaimed the customer.

"Absolutely. Here, let me get two of them out for you."

Mr. Barkin leaned over and opened the cage, removing a pair of wombats and passing them off to the customer, who seemed to be enthusiastic despite the fact that both of his new pets immediately urinated on him while clawing at his chest. Ron wrinkled his nose at the sight, but after recovering from a particularly nasty claw slash, the customer skipped happily away towards the front registers.

"Anything else, Stoppable?"

"Nope."

"Don't you have to clean up the stock room today?"

Ron thought about it for a moment. Maybe Mr. Barkin was right; he had probably forgotten to take a look at his daily duties checklist when he came in. Lots of things were on his mind lately.

"Stoppable, you seem like you're in a bit of a funk today. Forgetting your stock room duty, and the wombat prices? Normally you're all over the exotic pet information. What's your malfunction?"

Ron shrugged haplessly. He knew what was going on, but he didn't really want to talk about his romantic woes with the man who may well have been his least favorite teacher, if it weren't for the fact that Mr. Barkin was the only teacher he could think of by name at the moment. The other ones seemed to come and go pretty quickly.

"Is it Possible?"

"Oh, man! It's like you read my mind, Mr. B."

"Earlier, you were grinding your teeth and saying the name 'Kim' out loud, so it was an educated guess."

"Gotcha."

Mr. Barkin sighed heavily in commiseration with his student, and gave Ron a hefty pat on the back that almost sent him sprawling out over the freshly-mopped exotic pets aisle. He began to walk in the direction of the employee lounge, leading Ron along with him. "Come with me," he said. "Let's take a little break."

"Um, okay."

Although taking a break with Mr. Barkin sounded fishy, to say the least, Ron didn't mind a break in general. It was definitely better than cleaning out the stock room, for one thing. He joined his teacher in the employee lounge and grabbed a magazine, taking a seat at the table while Mr. Barkin grabbed something from the refrigerator. Ron looked up from his reading as Mr. Barkin sat down, opened a soda, and passed another one over to him.

"Thanks, Mr. B."

"Not a problem, Stoppable. Now put down that magazine."

"Huh?"

"You and me need to have a little talk, mano-a-mano. About the ladies."

"Aw, Mr. B, we don't need to talk about the ladies. We could talk about anything but the ladies, really."

"No, Stoppable, I've seen what's going on between you and Possible - it's obvious you need some guidance from someone who understands the inscrutable mysteries of the opposite gender."

"Inscrutawhat?"

He hadn't even begun to drink his own soda before Mr. Barkin downed his in one gulp, crushing the can in his beefy palm and throwing it behind him. It hit the ground with a clatter, as there were no trashcans nearby. Ron sighed, dropping the magazine and getting ready for a slow and painful conversation. So much for going on break.

"I noticed Kim Possible wasn't at school today," said Mr. Barkin.

"Yeah, I don't know where she is."

_I probably do_, thought Ron. _But I sure don't feel like bringing _that_ up._

"You don't talk to her much anymore?"

Ron was silent.

"You and Possible are broken up, right? Doesn't seem like you two talk very much at school."

Judging by Mr. B's probing, Ron got the feeling there was no way he'd be able to avoid the oncoming conversation. He sighed, giving in. "Yeah, we're broken up, I guess. She's got a thing for _Shego_," he said, spitting the name from his lips as if he had bitten into a piece of rotten meat.

"That is unfortunate, Stoppable."

"She's got the Ron Man, and she goes for the woman who keeps trying to fry the Ron Man in a blast of green plasma. Explain _that_, Mr. B!"

Mr. Barkin took a moment to straighten himself up, obviously preparing to hand some sage wisdom down to Ron. However, it turned out he had just been a little unnerved by the idea of Kim and Shego together. "Miss Go and Possible, that's just – I just don't know – it's just WRONGSICK!"

Ron nodded patiently.

"Anyway, Stoppable, here's the thing – you're not enough of a man for Possible. She's an alpha female, and you're some kind of gamma wolf, or something later in the Greek alphabet, I don't really have time to calculate. The details aren't important here. You're no omega wolf, I'll give you that – you _do_ join her on those missions, even if Possible's saving your butt all the time. But the point is, if you want her back, you have to step up!"

Ron sipped slowly from his soda, trying to parse what his teacher and coworker was trying to say. There was a lot of talk about wolves and the Greeks – he had gotten lost already. "Step up to what?" he asked. "Magma?"

"What?"

"Is that a Greek letter?"

"No, Stoppable, what the - to man status, I mean! Pay attention!"

"Come on, Mr. B, we've been through this before. I'm already a man! And this time it's for real, I talked to the rabbi about it and he signed the papers, and he said signatures didn't matter anyway!"

"I'm not talking about a man in the Hebrew sense, Stoppable, I'm talking about a man in the 'get Kim Possible to go out with you' sense. You got lucky with that whole Eric turning into a synthodrone thing, but you've been dropping the ball since then. You have to ask yourself, what do you have to offer to Kim Possible?"

Ron was a little unnerved by how much Mr. Barkin seemed to know about his after-school activities – and Kim's, for that matter – but still, his teacher's question brought a number of thoughts winding through his brain. Maybe Mr. Barkin had a point. Maybe he had been taking his girlfriend for granted, not doing his part as a boyfriend. If he had just been more attentive, maybe offered some of his pizza slices to her when they went to JP Bearymore's Pizza Partytorium, things might have ended up-

_No_, Ron thought. _No way. _ Maybe he wasn't perfect, but that didn't excuse what Kim had done to him. She hadn't even tried to talk about her feelings with him. Not until she went and cheated on him, anyway. And with Shego, of all people? Besides, after the conversation they had had yesterday, it was clear that things were over between them. Ron kept thinking of her as his girlfriend, but he needed to change that thinking. They were exes now.

"Now," said Mr. Barkin, "if you want some details-"

"I thought you said details aren't important."

"Don't interrupt me, Stoppable. Here's what you have to do. First of all, you're too pale and skinny – you need to get out in the sunlight more, and lift some weights at the gym. I remember there was a time you bulked up those muscles for a couple of days. I don't know what your secret was, but do that again."

Ron doubted Jack Hench would be willing to part with another one of those muscle rings.

"All women are also looking for a man to be a provider. You have to be strong, but you also have to make money, Stoppable. Why do you think I work day and night between Smarty Mart and Middleton High School?"

Ron tried to remember if he had ever seen Mr. Barkin with a girlfriend. He had always assumed Barkin's constant work schedule was due to his teacher having no personal life, but he decided that probably wasn't the answer Mr. Barkin was looking for. It seemed like a rhetorical question, anyway. And answering if honestly might bag Ron a detention, so he decided to keep quiet.

"You should consider applying for a promotion here, for instance. I know you have an in with Martin Smarty, and I don't know if you've been keeping up with your Smarty Mart employee newsletter, but the corporation is planning extensive expansions and new hiring in the next few months. I'd be willing to vouch for you – I'd try for a promotion myself, but my passion lies in sales. Take your job more seriously and move up in the ranks, and Possible will be impressed. Think about it, Stoppable – would your girlfriend prefer a criminal vagrant, or a musclebound professional?"

Ron was thinking about it, but he had his suspicions that Mr. Barkin was not the best source of advice when it came to the ladies. The man _did_ seem to have a life that consisted of nothing but work, and from what he remembered, there weren't a lot of romantic fireworks going off on that double date with his teacher and Miss Go. He wondered if that was where it all started, really. Maybe he and Mr. Barkin had something in common – they were both bad enough dates to turn Kim and Shego gay. He smiled ruefully at the thought.

Mr. Barkin continued rambling about self-improvement, but Ron wasn't paying attention anymore. No, he thought as he finished off his soda, he wouldn't get any help from his teacher. And yet maybe Mr. Barkin had been right, in a way. Even if it was all Kim's fault their relationship had crumbled, maybe they just weren't meant to be. He'd been thinking about things lately, and saw warning signs in their relationship when he hadn't seen them the first time around. And the more he thought about what he had seen in that bedroom, the more impossible the idea of mending their relationship became.

Friendship should have been enough for him, but no, that wasn't enough for the Ron Man. He should have been satisfied, but he had reached for more. Ron Stoppable had to have it all.

And now, he had nothing.

XX

Here she was, back at the lair.

Kim had gone home for a little while, as Drakken's temporary lair was not that far from Middleton – almost on the outskirts, really – but things had been kind of awkward with her parents. Not only that, but she had been thinking about that morning and the night before so much that it was hard to concentrate on her homework. She had skipped school anyway, and asking Ron for updates on homework would have been totally useless even when they _were_ getting along fine. After spending some time not doing much at all, Kim had decided to return to the lair. And Shego was happy to have her around, apparently.

"Right here. Watch this scene. Check that out!"

The movie on the television – _Bricks of Fury II_, which, according to Shego, was the zenith of the franchise – reached a scene where the hero broke into an underground hideout to save his partner from being tortured for information. Sure enough, true to the title, the hero smashed through a brick wall, picked up a brick in each hand, and flung one at each enemy before plunging into the fray. Kim nodded; the movie definitely delivered on its title's promise. You wanted bricks, you got bricks. Even _she_ probably couldn't do that to a brick wall. Shego gave her an enthusiastic glance.

"Totally awesome, right?"

Kim was amused by Shego's unusual excitement over the movie; she wasn't sure she had ever seen her in this kind of mood before. "Yeah, pretty cool," she said. "I guess I'm more into _The Memo Pad,_ but Ron watches these all the time."

"Ugh, Stoppable. Let's not talk about him."

Shego's reaction irked Kim a little. It wasn't like she had been planning on launching into a monologue about Ron, anyway. She looked down at her carton of Chinese takeout; although it was still half-full, she decided she had eaten enough lo mein for one night and placed it down on the coffee table of the lair's lounge. Shego, who was sitting beside her, let out a belch as she ate her own food. Kim would complain, but she knew she didn't always have the best table manners herself.

Pretty much a whole day, hanging out with Shego. Kim was still trying to wrap her head around it. Her morning and evening had been spent in Drakken's lair as well, which was the first time she could remember spending an extended amount of time in a supervillain's lair without being strapped to some doomsday device, locked in a prison cell, or dumped in a pit with some kind of dangerous mutant animal ready to devour her.

There was something fascinating about getting a peek into how Shego lived, up close and personal. She had always assumed supervillains were totally different from regular people, somehow. It seemed strange to her that people like Shego and Drakken spent half of their time plotting on world domination or designing devices of mass destruction, and the other half of their time sleeping, eating, and watching _Bricks of Fury. _She was about to ask Shego just how much time she spent lounging around watching movies when the sound of footsteps began to echo from down a nearby hallway. It was evening, and the henchmen seemed to have disappeared – off duty, maybe – so Kim could only assume Shego's boss had returned. He had been gone when she arrived at the lair for the evening.

"Shego, I'm back, and I bought some low-fat-"

Drakken emerged from the hallway and trailed off at the sight of Kim, stopping a few feet away from the olive-green upholstered couch where she was sitting with his right-hand woman. "Oh, you're still here?"

"Yep. I came back. Hope you don't mind."

"Er – me, mind? No, not at all. My lair is open to everyone, even my worst enemies. If you'd like, I would be happy to give you a personal tour."

"Already did," said Shego.

"What? Shego, how am I supposed to hide the-"

Drakken stopped abruptly, shutting his mouth with an audible clacking sound as he narrowed his eyes at Kim. She couldn't help smirking at his slip. "The Transliteration Ray?" she asked. "Shego showed me that, too."

"What? Shego, this is unacceptable!"

"Yeah, you guys totally can't be building that," said Kim. "I had to destroy it."

Drakken's mouth dropped open as his gaze shifted rapidly back and forth between the two of them. "Why did – Shego, how – why did you let-"

"Look, Doctor D, that thing was really lame, anyway. And you barely even started it. Kimmie was doing you a favor."

"The Transliteration Ray was not lame in any way, Shego! It was the new and improved successor to the Transmogrification Ray, and with it we could have ruled the world with an iron-"

"Do you even know what 'transliteration' means?"

"Yes, Shego, for your information, I do. I enjoy the prefix 'trans', and I added 'literation', like in 'obliteration'. Thus creating a totally awesome new word for my invention, which will obliterate my enemies."

"So you're a 'trans' man?" asked Kim.

"Yes. Yes, I am a 'trans' man, for your information."

"That's not what the word means," said Shego. "And for the love of God, what is it with you and rays lately? Seriously, Doctor D, you've been in a rut ever since the Li'l Diablos – I mean, what have we done lately that's gotten anywhere close to working that well? Maybe you should be taking a break and collecting your thoughts more."

"_Nnnngh!_ My thoughts are perfectly collected, thank you! I thought you were supposed to be turning Kim Possible to our side, anyway! You invite her into my lair and let her destroy all my hard work? Do you want to be fired, Shego?"

"Can't do that unless it's for reasons specified in my contract."

"What? What reasons?"

"I don't know, go read my contract."

"Where is it?"

"I think it burned up in our last lair, thanks to Princess here. But the terms still stand."

Drakken stuttered impotently for a few moments before turning and storming out of the lounge in fury. Kim was shocked; it seemed like open insurrection on Shego's part, and yet she didn't seem to care at all. Maybe this part of their working relationship was more normal than she thought. After Drakken disappeared, presumably to his basement laboratories, Shego turned to Kim with a straight face. The two of them could only hold their stares for about two seconds before they burst into gales of laughter.

"Turning me to your side, huh?" asked Kim after the two of them had gotten over Drakken's exit.

"That's right. You're already here – don't pretend you're not interested."

"Interested in getting my butt kicked by a teenager and then going to jail? Um, no thanks."

A brief flash of vexation from Shego made Kim wonder if she had gotten under her skin, but she seemed to shrug it off easily. "Come on, Princess," she said. "I think you're interested in the kind of freedom I have. Maybe you're a little tired of following the rules all the time. Being there for everybody instead of indulging yourself."

"And how do you know that?"

"It's written all over you! I can just tell – why do you think I went after you in the first place? I knew you were open to new things, and you _had_ to be getting tired of that buffoon."

"Don't call him a buffoon."

Shego looked like she was going to say something snarky, but Kim shot her a hard stare to make a point of her seriousness. She didn't like the Ron-bashing – partly because she knew Shego was biased and didn't know Ron, but partly, she had to admit, because of her guilt. Maybe Ron had been acting like a baby over everything, not giving her an opportunity to try to explain, treating her like some kind of monster over the past week, but she still knew she had hurt him. Even being here made her feel a little pang of guilt, despite her curiosity. Despite the thrill of this strange new connection growing with Shego. She had fallen into this headfirst, and quickly. Possibly too quickly.

And Ron would probably call it a stab in the back. Overdramatic, sure, but on some level, Kim knew what he meant.

"Look," said Shego, "I'm sorry if I bash on Ron a lot, okay? I'm sure he's a nice guy, but I just never got the two of you together. Friends, maybe, but not lovers. It's almost like you decided to go out with him because he's no threat to you, you know? You're spending your free time beating up supervillains and breaking into their personal property, like there's any way _that_ can be legal, and yet you live this goody-two-shoes life on the side – it's like Ron was a way to keep you going on that path, where you get married and have a house with a white picket fence and you don't have to give in the wilder side of-"

"Can we stop talking about Ron?"

Shego was cut off by the abrupt outburst.

"Fine," she said, her lips curled in a slight pout.

Kim pointed an accusing finger. "What about you, anyway? You keep telling me I'm interested in taking up your lifestyle, but _you're_ the one who used to be a superhero. I think you're the one who's putting on an act to escape from something you don't want to face, not me. You really prefer tagging along with someone like Drakken and being tailed by Global Justice all the time when you could be helping people and making a difference? Seriously?"

"It's complicated," said Shego.

"Well, why don't you explain it to me?"

"I'm not interested in talking about my family, okay?"

Shego sat back on the couch with a huff, her arms crossed defensively. She changed her mind and leaned forward again to grab a carton of Chinese food, but they were all empty – having nothing else to do, she went back to her original position as the two of them fell into an awkward silence.

"Why do you like me so much, anyway?"

Shego raised an eyebrow at Kim's question.

"You had that wrongsick synthodrone thing," said Kim, trying to prod Shego out of her reticence. "You broke into my room, you wouldn't take no for an answer – is it all just a physical thing? Is that it?"

"No. Not just that."

"Then what?"

Although Shego wasn't moving, her face frozen in a blank expression, Kim got the feeling she was struggling with a response to the question. She saw her lover's lips twitching for an instant, as if trying to form an answer, but nothing came out. Finally, Shego shrugged.

"I don't know what it is," she said. "Just an attraction."

Somehow, the conversation seemed to be coming to an end. Shego had no answers.

"Maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do," said Kim.

The movie was still playing as the two of them settled silently into the couch, but neither of them were paying much attention to it. Kim heard the faint sounds of grunts and kicks emanating from the speakers as she thought about what a strange day it had been. Maddening, even. Physically, Shego had opened up something in her that she had never felt before. Mentally, emotionally – Kim had to admit there was something there, something thrilling about Shego, about the way Kim was doing something she never would have imagined even a month ago. But was it something real, something that had potential, or was it just some kind of rush she got from breaking taboos? Shacking up with the enemy, sloughing off her good girl image, if only just a little?

There was something between them – a connection, and yet at the same time, a gulf of difference. A voice from deep inside her had been getting louder by the day. A voice that whispered, egged her on, told her to take the bait. And yet, when Kim saw how far apart the two of them really were, she wondered if listening to that voice would send her plummeting into the abyss.

XX

"Any meetings to remember for tomorrow, Miss Harcourt?"

Night had fallen outside the office window, and Jack Hench was in a hurry to leave, but he didn't mind spending a few more minutes waiting around the reception area while Miss Harcourt clicked through the schedule on her desktop computer. It was good to keep up with business, and more importantly, it was always possible Miss Harcourt needed an escort to the parking lot. Hiring this hot little number as a new secretary had been the best business decision Jack had made in a while. He peered over the desk, waiting for an answer, and enjoying the view while he did.

"No, sir. Tomorrow is mostly an empty schedule, although you have a conference call."

"With who?"

"You didn't tell me, sir. You just told me to remind you about your conference call."

Jack pursed his lips, confused for a moment, until his memory returned.

"Oh, right," he said. "_That_ conference call. Thanks for the heads up."

Hench wasn't really looking forward to that conference call. Dealing with the Board was usually kind of boring. Especially since he had to patch in through a remote link and didn't even know who most of the other members were, although he had strong suspicions about at least one of them. It was nice to get a heads up on what many of his clients – and their enemies – were up to, and it was a good way to make sure he never ran afoul of the law, but most days, it was just a hassle.

Still, business was business.

"Coming out to the parking lot?" he asked.

"Sure. Let me get my purse."

Jack waited while Miss Harcourt prepared to leave. When she leaned over to reach beneath the desk, it was a sight to see; sometimes being the boss had its perks. She was a young lady, probably too young for anything to happen in terms of a relationship, and Jack was a busy man anyway, but it was nice to have a pretty face around the office. The two of them took the elevator and went down to the ground floor of Hench Co's headquarters. Jack nodded his head and hummed at the pleasant light jazz thrumming faintly in the elevator.

"Did you make any sales with Cyrus Bortel?" asked Miss Harcourt.

"I'm afraid not. The man seemed a little stingy."

"That's too bad."

It _was_ too bad, Hench thought. But then, Bortel was new to the supervillain business. A little jumpy, maybe; just testing the waters before he leaped into the deep end. The man had promise; Hench had even employed him to help out the science division on a temporary basis a few years ago, just for a week or two. Bortel hadn't even seemed like he remembered that when he was shopping the other day. A busy man, Hench supposed. Just like himself. He wondered what form Bortel's first plan to conquer the world would take. Maybe something with mind control or emotion chips. He remembered Bortel had done some work with those.

"My car is over there," said Miss Harcourt, pointing across the lot as they left the building.

"Alright. Good job today, Miss Harcourt. See you bright and early."

"Good night, sir."

Miss Harcourt left, her high heels clattering across the concrete parking lot as she passed under the yellow glare of overhead parking lights. Hench's car was in the other direction; he took another brief look at his secretary before heading away. Tonight, he was thinking a little period drama on cable, maybe a glass of wine. Maybe two. He had some leftovers in the fridge to go with it. After that, thoughts of Miss Harcourt in a revealing outfit could send him to sleep. Jack approached his car, unlocking with the remote beeper in his pocket. He got inside and shut the door behind him, placing the key in the ignition. He was about to turn-

"Hello!"

Jack was so startled by the voice that he jerked up from his seat fast enough to smack his head on the roof. He whirled around, looking into the back seat. The temporary light was still on since he had just closed the car door, and he saw a young woman behind him. Kim Possible, to be exact.

"Good Lord, Possible," he said. "You scared me! What are you doing in my _car?_"

"We have to go for a trip."

Hench was about to ask what kind of trip when, suddenly, the car light turned off. He caught a flash of something, glinting in the moonlight, held in Kim's hand as she raised it up from behind the seat. Hench didn't even have time to react before he felt a sharp stab in his neck. A needle. His hand reached up, but Kim had pulled it out already. He felt the spot where it had plunged in as a strange weakness overcome him.

"Why-"

He struggled for the words as his vision blurred.

"Why – what trip?"

Kim opened the back door of the car and got out, stepping up to Jack's door and opening it up. She began to pull Jack out of his seat. He felt his limbs dropping, sluggish, like dead weights.

"We're going to visit my creator."

"Who... who is your creator..."

"Cyrus Bortel!"

Vision gave way to dull grayness as Jack felt himself being dragged across the concrete lot. The hazy lump that was his car began to recede from view as Kim pulled, her arms hooked underneath his own limp arms. Maybe _not_ Kim Possible, he decided.

As a matter of fact, Bortel had said something in passing about synthodrones when he had stopped by earlier. It looked like Jack had just discovered what theme the man's first world domination scheme would be taking. It was just too bad he was getting a first-hand demonstration.


	10. She's Been a Bad Girl

**She's Been a Bad Girl**

XX

Only a few hours on the job and Kim was already aching to leave. Normally she enjoyed working at Club Banana, folding shirts and giving customers tips on fashion when she wasn't chatting with Monique about school gossip - but today was different. Probably because Shego had mentioned something about meeting up later in the evening. Her shift wasn't finished yet, but Monique was coming in at any moment according to the schedule taped behind the registers, and Kim was hoping she could duck out early. Sure enough, she beamed at the sight of her friend weaving through some mall traffic beyond the outlet's display windows.

"Hey, girl," said Monique as she got inside.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Gettin' ready for another exciting day of clothes-folding at Club Banana. I haven't seen you in a couple days."

Kim realized Monique was right. It was the weekend, and she had skipped school again on Friday – and she hadn't been scheduled to work in the past few days, either. She was a little embarrassed about being so antsy to get off the clock when she hadn't been working that much in the first place. Not to mention she'd be leaving Monique to work alone for most of the evening.

"I guess I've been busy," said Kim. "I didn't miss anything on Friday, did I?"

"Just Bonnie being her usual heinous self. I'm tellin' you, if that girl-"

"Hey, can I ask you a favor?"

Kim didn't mean to interrupt her friend, but she wanted to get her question out. Monique looked up from the floor behind the register counters, where she had been stooping down to stash her purse. "Yeah, go for it," she said.

"Could I leave work a few hours early tonight?"

Monique looked suspiciously at her for a moment before gathering her face into a smile. She had seemed unusually friendly when she got into the store, despite the fact that they hadn't been talking as much lately. Kim got the impression she was trying to make an effort to be conversational.

"Um – I guess so. That's a shame, though, I was kinda hopin' we could catch up a little. Something going on?"

"What do you mean?"

"How come you need off early? Is it an emergency or something?"

Kim shook her head, although she hesitated before deciding to volunteer an answer. She and Monique really hadn't talked much – if at all - about her sitch with Shego yet, and she got the impression her friend did not approve. As far as Monique knew, it had been a one time fluke. As if confirming her fears, Monique seemed to drop her attempt at looking conversational. Her smile changed to a thinly-veiled frown as silent seconds ticked by.

"Don't tell me, you're goin' to see _her?_"

"Well," laughed Kim, "if you don't want me to tell you..."

Based on the way Monique propped her hand saucily on her hip, the joke fell flat.

A customer came up to the counter before either of them could say anything else, and their conversation was interrupted as Kim waited for Monique to finish ringing her up at the cash register. Once the customer finally left, she turned back with a worried expression. "Seriously?" she asked. "Ron was talkin' about this, but I thought he was just making stuff up. You and Shego are like a thing now? Isn't she still with Drakken?"

"I'm on an undercover mission, okay? I'm figuring out if there's any chance she'll flip sides and fight the bad guys instead – you know, do the same kind of thing me and Ron do."

"The kind of thing you and Ron _haven't_ been doing lately, if you don't mind me noticing."

Kim shrugged haplessly.

"You think a covert mission is really a good idea? After what happened between you and Ron, doing whatever it is you're doing with Shego – spendin' time over at their lair or whatever it is – I dunno, Kim. It just seems a little mean. Even if you guys broke up or something, you're jumping ships a little fast, don't you think?"

"It's not mean! Besides, you want mean, what about the way Ron's been treating _me_ lately? You think he gave me a single chance to work things out with him?"

"Yeah, but I expect that kinda attitude from Ron. With you, I dunno _what's_ been goin' on lately. I come in, trying to act normal and get back into the flow with you, and then you have to go hang out with Shego five minutes after I get here."

Monique sounded a little angry. Kim couldn't help stuttering for a moment as she faced down her friend's confused look – clearly, she was looking for some kind of answer. It was too bad Kim didn't know what was going on with herself lately, either. It was almost like, for a very long time, she had been on autopilot. Maybe she had been _too_ confident in her own skin. At the first sign of a serious challenge – not just a fight, not just a supervillain, but a challenge to her identity, to her as a person – Kim got mixed up. Who she was, what she wanted; once she began to scratch beneath the surface, things got very murky.

"I'm just confused," she said. "Confused about me."

Monique looked skeptical, but it was the simplest answer Kim could come up with.

"I hope you don't get confused about who your friends are," she said.

Another customer came up to the register with a ludicrous pile of clothing. Monique began to ring them up as her words lingered, weighing like an anchor in Kim's stomach. Of course Monique was her friend – why would she even say anything like that? Or was she thinking about Ron? He _had_ been Kim's best friend, after all, and at this point she wasn't sure if they would end up being _anything_ together.

Suddenly, Kim wasn't so happy to see Monique. Maybe it was the unpleasant turn their conversation had taken, maybe it was guilt – or maybe she was just tired of being admonished for her choices lately. She hated having to defend how she felt, even if her feelings had been scaring her just as much as everyone around her. People couldn't help how they felt, after all. People liked who they liked.

And, on that note, Kim decided it was high time to see Shego again.

Monique was still busy ringing up the customer, so Kim gave her a brief brush on the arm as a goodbye before clocking out in the back, returning to the front, and escaping into the mall. It was kind of a busy evening – once again, Kim felt guilty that she was leaving her friend alone to deal with things. But then again, Monique _was_ assistant manager. This was the kind of thing she got paid for. And it was obvious what they'd be talking about if Kim stayed for the rest of her shift. Talking about Shego had a way of depressing her when she was doing it with anyone other than Shego.

As she made her way to the mall entrance, past the fountains and the cafeteria, thoughts of green skin and white sheets raced in her mind. Kim dropped her head, as if she didn't want any of the shoppers around her reading her mind and picking up on what she was thinking. Anticipating what she might do with Shego later – naughty or otherwise – had Kim so distracted, she almost ran into a passing mall-goer. Her surprise turned to dread when she looked up and saw who it was.

"Ron?"

And Rufus, too.

"Oh," said Ron. "Hey, KP. It's you."

Rufus, perched on his shoulder, crossed a pair of tiny pink arms and let out a dismissive grunt. The mole rat's attitude wasn't surprising – whenever there was a conflict between Ron and anyone, Ron's pet would, of course, take his side. But it was still a little disconcerting to see Rufus mad at her. Normally the little guy was happy to see her.

"So, what-" she said, "-why are you at the mall?"

The question sounded suspicious, accusatory. Not the way Kim had intended.

"I _do_ shop sometimes, Kim. I'm allowed to go to the mall."

"I know that. I was just wondering."

"You missed a mission the other day. Wade was trying to call you and you didn't answer the Kimmunicator."

"Sorry. I guess I was busy or something."

"Yeah, I bet."

Kim felt a flash of irritation. She had hoped Ron might be getting over things, but from his attitude, it seemed like he was dwelling on what had happened. He was giving her lip. Sure, maybe she was sarcastic sometimes, but it was just so annoying when Ron did it!

"What's that mean?" she asked, knowing exactly what it meant, but unable to resist prodding anyway.

"Shacking up with the enemy doesn't leave a lot of time for missions, does it?"

"Whatever. I already told you I'm on a mission for Global Justice."

"Like _that's_ why you've been hanging out with Shego lately."

"What do you want me to say, Ron? Every time I try to explain myself you reject it!"

"What's to explain? I get it, she's pretty hot for an older lady, and I guess I should have seen it coming considering you liked somebody like Josh Mankey."

"Like there was anything wrong with Josh! God, Ron, you're totally ridiculous!"

"Mankey, monkey, mankey monkey! Think about it!"

Kim slapped a palm against her forehead. "You know what, Ron? Maybe I _am_ doing it just because I like Shego. So there you go. And you know what the difference is between you and Shego? She _listens_ to me. Not only that, but we went to Chez Pierre yesterday, and guess what – she totally paid for the meal. The whole meal. No coupons, no crayons, and no kid's menus."

"It's a reasonable cost-saving choice! And the kid's menus are delightful!"

At this point, Ron's voice had risen to a shrill pitch; several shoppers turned their heads to gawk at the source of the argument, and Kim became keenly aware of the attention they were getting. She and Ron had gotten into arguments before, and Ron had a way of drawing attention to himself, but she wasn't in the mood for this. Not tonight. And they weren't going out anymore, anyway. She didn't have to deal with this. Like Ron ever dealt with anything he didn't want to deal with, even when the two of them _were_ going out.

_Screw this_, she thought.

"I'm leaving now. To see Shego."

"Fine! I hope you two have fun making some kind of Doomsday weapon! But not really, because then I'd have to break into Drakken's lair and disable it and I think that would be really awkward for all three of us!"

Ron shouted his bizarre parting shot before brushing past her and storming farther into the mall. Rufus, she noticed, turned around and gave her a rude gesture – maybe the rodent equivalent of a middle finger, she wasn't sure – before the two of them turned a corner and disappeared. Based on the direction he was going, there was a good chance he'd drop by Club Banana to see Monique, and the two of them could trade stories about how Kim was such an evil bitch. She wouldn't be surprised.

And, hey – if that was really what they thought, maybe they had a point. All this stuff about working for Global Justice, testing the waters, trying to figure out why she had these feelings – maybe she was just fooling herself. She knew what she wanted. It was time to find Shego and indulge the darker side of Kim Possible.

XX

It was an unfamiliar place, but nothing was familiar to her when Shego was not around. It was a suburban neighborhood – she knew that was what humans called it. Not a mountain lair, not a little town like some of the ones she had visited when she was wandering, lost with no place to go. The suburban neighborhood was part of a big town, with a Space Center and a mall and a place called JP Bearymore's, whatever that was - and it was the place her model, her original, called home.

As she thought of the word home, wondering where home was to her, she realized that she had just stumbled across Kim Possible's actual home. Not Middleton, but her house. She stopped and stared. It was a big house. But it was no lair. She wondered if Kim Possible was at home, or maybe she was with Shego in Drakken's lair, which was not far away. She didn't like to think about that possibility. But either way, it did not matter; Kim Possible's house was not where she was going that night.

Her destination was close, just down the street. Since she had completed her last mission to kidnap Jack Hench, Cyrus Bortel, her creator, had given her directions to get there. It was a good thing their intentions overlapped, because it would be easy for the two of them to work together, even if she did not quite trust her creator after what he had tried to do. Even if it was not really his fault, and it was Kim Possible like he said, she would have to keep an eye on him. Just like he had sent her to keep an eye on someone else.

She was happy to do it. Maybe she could learn something about what Shego wanted – what she was supposed to be if she wanted her lover back. She could learn to be more like Kim Possible, more like the reality that Shego wanted, and she could learn it from someone who knew just what Kim was like. She did not think Kim would be willing to help her, after all.

She arrived at her destination and walked up the driveway to the house's front door. She rang the doorbell. It was not long before a bespectacled man opened the door with a friendly smile. "Hello," she said, carefully arranging her own lips into a smile, which she presented in return.

"Nice to see you, Kim!"

"Is Ron home?"

Dean Stoppable shook his head. "I'm afraid not; he's at the mall right now. But you're welcome to come in and wait for him to get back!"

Ron's father led her into the house. He was talking about how he hoped the two of them would work things out, but she did not pay attention. She was busy looking at everything around her: couch, chairs, tables, pictures nestled in their frames and hung from walls. This was the house of her human model's best friend. Talking to her model could be complicated, as her creator had told her the real Kim Possible would not want to see her.

But if she wanted to be more like her, maybe Ron Stoppable could point her in the right direction.

XX

The number on the check had one too many zero's for Kim's taste. Maybe even _two_ too many.

"Don't worry, Princess."

Kim looked up from the paper. "What?"

"I got it covered."

Kim was glad; the only reason she had come to such an expensive place was because Shego had agreed to cover the bill. In their blossoming relationship, she was beginning to feel a little like Ron, like she was going to bust out a coupon book at any moment. Maybe she had gotten used to one too many nights out at Bueno Nacho. It wasn't like she was hard-pressed when it came to money, but this definitely seemed pricey. Apparently, her green girlfriend's tastes were on the expensive side.

_Girlfriend_, Kim thought. _Did I really just think that?_

"Come on," said Shego as she slipped out of the booth.

Nonplussed, Kim stared blankly for a moment as Shego stood up and peeped outside the blue curtain that separated them from the rest of the club. They were in Go City, in some kind of combination dance club and restaurant – _Beats and Eats_, if Kim had read the neon sign out front correctly. Shego had insisted it was the hip place to go, although Kim thought having a pulsating dance beat mere yards away from a dining booth was not the best way to enjoy a meal. The curtain offered a little privacy while not doing much to dampen the sound. As Shego looked back insistently, motioning for Kim to get up, she realizing what was going on. Shego had the meal covered, all right. In a way.

"Come on, Kimmie, the coast is clear."

"Shego, I don't think we-"

Any further protests were cut short as Shego grabbed her by the arm and pulled her through the curtain. A few open tables were scattered around a platform beyond the dining booths, and beyond that, the dance floor itself lay sprawled beneath colored lights – mostly electric blue – and the occasional pulsing laser light. A blanket of club-goer's heads, poking up beyond the railing that separated the raised dining area from the dance floor, bobbed in unison to a pulsing electronic beat. Shego went straight for the dance floor.

They had danced earlier, which was fun if a little hectic, but Kim didn't feel like doing it again. She was confused for a split second until it became more clear that Shego was trying to bail on the bill.

"You two! Stop!"

Someone in a suit pointed at them from the dining area. Not their waiter. Maybe the manager, Kim thought. Whoever it was pulled out a walkie talkie as Kim followed Shego into the crowd of dancers. Shego was shoving people aside left and right, but Kim got the feeling she hadn't exactly planned their exit strategy, as she was having some trouble muscling her way through the sea of dancing bodies that pressed against them. A stray elbow caught Kim in the face. How people could go to clubs like this every weekend, she had no idea.

Once the dancing waves parted, the club's front doors came into sight. Unfortunately, three burly bouncers also came into sight, alerted to their escaping customers. Kim began to feel a little exasperation towards Shego for getting the two of them into such an awkweird situation, but soon afterwards, she felt a rush of something else: adrenaline. Anticipation.

This wasn't the kind of fight she wanted, and yet... it _was_ a fight.

She felt Shego draw up a little closer as the two of them tensed for an attack. Kim wondered if she could explain it all as a misunderstanding, but from the way Shego was acting, it was clear she had never been planning to cover their meal tonight. One bouncer leered as he drew closer, while the other two wore stony expressions.

One of the bouncers yelled over the music: "You ladies gotta pay up!"

The man got a foot in the stomach as payment.

Kim gave a start of shock as the other two bouncers converged on Shego in retaliation, and before she even knew what she was doing, she gave the closest man a one-two punch as he tried to grab Shego by the arm. The bouncer hit the ground before he knew what hit him. The third bouncer latched onto Shego's back – just due to his sheer weight, Shego was having trouble shaking him off. Several nearby dancers had noticed the fight and backed away in confusion.

"Dude, leave that poor green chick alone!" one of them shouted.

The bouncer lasted a couple seconds longer before Shego manged to heave him over herself, sending him crashing onto the floor and almost flattening the dancer who had shouted. For some reason, the move reminded Kim of a bull bucking off a cowboy at a rodeo.

The first two bouncers had gotten up again; one of them rushed at Kim like a bull on a rampage, but as intimidating as he looked, he was no henchman. And not even henchmen gave her much trouble. He went down with a single well placed kick, although Kim tried to go easy on him. Shego took the other one out, sending him stumbling back into the crowd. She headed for the doors, and with an insistent wave of her hand, Kim followed her.

"Come on!" shouted Shego.

The two of them ran around the side of the building, to the club's parking lot. Kim was glad to breathe fresh air and hear the club's music grow fainter in the background. Shego's hovercraft, blocking two spaces of the lot, was waiting for them. Kim jumped in just before Shego, already inside, brought the thing up into the air. "Fasten your seatbelt," she said. "And don't puke inside the hovercraft, okay?"

"I don't have a seatbelt," said Kim. "And if I hurl, it's your fault for going too fast."

The hovercraft sailed through the air as they ditched the club.

It was late in the evening, and stars flashed in the night sky as they flew over Go City, gaining enough altitude to pass over most of the smaller buildings. Kim looked down over the side of the craft. The club was already receding into the distance. Cars flashed on the roads, but a cool wind whipped through her hair, drowning out the dull, bustling roar of city life below. Lights and neon signs came and went as Shego picked up their speed; Kim was unable to focus on anything specific. She collapsed back into her seat. Her heart was still racing from the confrontation at the club, and added to that, she always enjoyed riding in Shego's hovercraft.

"I can't believe we just _did_ that!" said Kim. "Why did we eat there if we couldn't pay for it?"

"Why not?"

"Why not – what do you-"

Judging by the look she gave her, Kim got the feeling Shego was just toying with her. "Don't tell me that wasn't fun," she said.

It was certainly _not_ fun. Kim felt bad about what they had done: forcing the bouncers to get involved in a fight just because of Shego's selfishness, bailing on their responsibility. They could have been arrested! What would she have told her parents if that had happened? Not that she had spoken to her parents much lately, anyway.

And yet Shego's smirk was infectious. Kim couldn't help second-guessing herself. She had just gotten away with something, and their mad rush out of the club had been thrilling, in a way. The fight was anticlimactic, but she did enjoy fighting, and it was a new experience. She had gotten something for free, with no consequences. She had broken the rules. Not once, not in a million years, did she ever think she would have done something like that. And here they were, with not a care in the world, sailing off into the sky.

"I don't know," she said tentatively. "That wasn't the right thing to do."

"Who cares? You think they really needed our money? That place is a total ripoff, Kimmie. That much money for some dancing and mediocre food – you're just paying for a name. They make a business out of stealing from people, so why shouldn't we steal a little from them? It's not like we robbed an orphanage or something. We're just evening the score."

Maybe Shego had a point. It definitely seemed way overpriced, and if she was right, it would help massage Kim's guilt a little. But it still didn't seem right It seemed like Shego was rationalizing, inviting Kim to join her in dismissing what they had done. She couldn't help wondering how often Shego did things like that. "Have you ever been there before?" she asked.

"Nah. I woulda liked to go there in the past, but I didn't have the cash."

The comment reminded Kim that they were in Go City, where Shego had once lived and worked.

"So, what," she said, "this was like some kind of revenge fantasy?"

Shego laughed. "I dunno, I just remembered the place being really popular. I wanted to see what it was like. Come on, admit you enjoyed getting away with something like that. We took what we wanted!"

As much as Kim wanted to resist, a part of her wanted to accept what Shego was saying. It was wrong, no doubt about it, but she could see why that kind of lifestyle appealed to the woman. Never having to worry about what other people thought, no responsibility, no repercussions as long as you could avoid getting caught – and Kim knew she'd be good at avoiding capture, seeing as nobody was really a match for her besides Shego. And she wasn't shackled with someone like Drakken, who had a knack for drawing attention to himself.

You could pretty much do what you wanted, have what you wanted. In a way, the very fact that she was with Shego was evidence of that. The woman had wanted her, and despite the obstacles in the way, Shego had gotten what she wanted - Kim was here in her hovercraft now. Listening to her little spiel. Almost like Shego was trying to convert her, she thought with a faint smile.

The hovercraft sailed through the indigo sky, making its way toward the outskirts of the city. Kim began to wonder where they were going. Even what they were doing. The word _girlfriend_ had passed through her mind earlier – were they really dating? Was this a relationship? Shego kept acting like none of it mattered, like they were just having fun together, but she had been the one to initiate everything, after all.

Kim didn't have long to ponder their place together before the hovercraft began to slow down. It sank gradually earthwards as they came upon an open hillside just past a swathe of pine trees huddled together beneath the moonlight like cloaked figures gathered for warmth. Shego landed the vehicle on the hillside and turned it off. Kim joined her as the two of them stepped out onto the cool grass, although Shego reached back inside the hovercraft and pulled out what looked like a blanket. Arching an eyebrow, Kim watched as she spread it out on the open hillside and laid down on it. Kim joined her.

"Check it out," said Shego. She pointed ahead of them.

Kim began to realize why she had chosen to land here. They were on a hillside elevated above the city, and beyond the tops of the pine trees ahead of them and further down the hill, most of the city's lights could be seen in the distance, draped like glittering spiderwebs over the landscape. Go City was beautiful at night, and this was definitely the place to see it. There was a certain romance to all of it. This blanket, the two of them under the stars; it was almost too romantic for Shego. But then, Shego seemed like she had a bit of a soft spot for romance.

"So, you wanna make out or something?"

Kim snorted, restraining laughter. So much for romance.

Still, she _did _want to make out. The two of them drew closer on the blanket and put their hands on each other. She felt warmth spreading over her as she pressed against Shego's skin, even though it was a cool night; the breeze whispered quietly around them, feathered fingers brushing against them as they coiled together in the darkness. She couldn't enjoy the view when they were lying like this, but that was okay. The view would be there all night.

"I dunno," said Kim, breaking off suddenly. "This is so public. Where are we, anyway?"

"Doesn't matter," said Shego.

Kim felt herself drawn in again as her lover kissed her deeply, like she was trying to cut off any more speech. Kim couldn't resist. The taste, the smell, the sight of Shego's legs shifting in the moonlight as the two of them rolled over on the blanket. It was overpowering. And yet, as she held closely to Shego, she felt her curiosity rising with her temperature. Why had Shego taken her here? They hadn't been to Go City before, and Kim found herself wondering just how close Shego still was to the city.

"Hold on," she said, breaking off another kiss. Shego gave a little grunt of exasperation. "Let's talk a little. We have all night, after all."

"Talk? About what?"

Kim sat back on the blanket and looked up at the sky. In between the points of light, the occasional bright spot blinked on and off, traveling lazily through the blackness. A plane, maybe lifted off from Go City's airport, making its way somewhere else. She wondered where Shego had lived before she and her brothers lived in Go Tower. Or maybe they had always lived there.

"Were you born here?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"In Go Tower?"

"No," Shego laughed. "In a house in the suburbs."

"How did you like it here?"

"It sucked."

There was no hesitation in Shego's answer.

"Because of your brothers, you mean?"

"Among other things, yeah."

Kim laughed without knowing why; it took her a moment to realize she was picturing Shego as an angsty high schooler, having a miserable time in Go City. She couldn't help wondering if Shego had been anything like her when she was in high school. She _was_ a superhero. Not that Kim really considered herself a superhero – just a regular girl who saved the world once in a while. But her hobby _did_ overlap with what superheroes did. Even then, she couldn't help thinking Shego probably didn't take the same amount of pride in academics as she did. Probably skipped a few classes, too. She couldn't help wondering why Shego had taken her up to this hillside in the first place.

"Have you been up _here_ before?" she asked.

"A long time ago, yeah. This was a place the teenagers liked to hang out sometimes."

Kim blushed. Maybe they were lying on Go City's equivalent of Make Out Point. "Wait a minute," she asked, "so we were just about to get frisky in the middle of a public make out spot where people might trip over us?"

"Hey, that was back in high school," said Shego. "Who knows if anybody comes up here nowadays. Besides, there's something a little naughty about doing that in public, right? Might get caught in the act."

Now that Kim thought about it, maybe she had a point. She had been feeling a bit of a thrill when Shego's hands ran over her, when the two of them were rolling on that blanket where anyone could see. There didn't seem to be anyone around, but you never knew.

"Did you ever take anyone else up here?" she asked.

Shego hesitated, as if weighing the pros and cons of answering the question. Kim wasn't really expecting an answer, but to her surprise, she got one:

"One time."

"Who was he – er, she?"

Shego grew silent, and Kim got the feeling that was all she was going to get. Maybe it was better not to talk about past relationships, anyway. It definitely got awkward whenever Ron got brought up, after all. In the silence that descended between them, something Shego had said earlier began to stick in her mind – something about high school. "How old are you, anyway?" she asked. "School couldn't have been _that_ long ago."

"Uh, it was a little while ago, Princess. I've already been through college."

"Oh, yeah. Child development degree, right?"

Shego nodded, silent.

"How come you went into this whole criminal world domination thing, instead of doing something with kids?"

"Have you ever seen kids? They're annoying as crap."

Kim thought of her twin brothers, who were annoying as crap, even if she loved them in the end. Still, she wondered why Shego had chosen a child development degree in the first place if she disliked children so much. It wasn't like anybody could miss the word 'child' in the title, after all. She couldn't help feeling like Shego's response was a cop out. Whatever had caused her to drop her past and become who she was now, Kim got the feeling she wouldn't be getting it to come out tonight. Just like she had failed to break through any other night. She sighed as Shego stared over the lights of the city.

"So you're not going to tell me how old you are?"

"I'm older than you. Why does it matter?"

"Are you even going to tell me your name? We've been going out for days now, and I still don't know your real name. There's no _way_ you're gonna convince me it's Shego."

For just a moment, Shego looked like she was about to answer. She turned; Kim couldn't make out the details of her face in the moonlight, but caught the glint of her eyes, an almost imperceptible shift in the lips. She waited for an answer: even her _last_ name was an enigma. Was it Go, or was that just the name she had chosen with her siblings? But there was no answer coming. Shego darted forward, and instead of words, Kim got a kiss.

It was insistent. Hungry. Kim felt herself pushed back onto the blanket again as they resumed the lovemaking she had cut off earlier. Shego was often the aggressor, which was strange; when Kim had been with Ron, she had always taken the initiative, even if that never led to much beyond a few kisses here and there. But now, she was with one of the few people who could overpower her. Which was exactly what Shego was doing.

Kim liked it.

An older woman – not old, but older – with more experience. More confidence in the one area where Kim was sometimes lacking. Maybe Shego seemed a little awkward with relationships, but she knew lust. Kim saw something in letting herself go, feeling a little helpless, that was unlike anything else in her life, where she always demanded control. As the two of them kissed more deeply, as Kim felt the ache of passion roiling up from inside, she knew Shego didn't want to talk anymore.

This was Shego's way of shutting her up. And despite all her curiosity, Kim was happy to shut up.

XX

Times were tough, no doubt about it. That nasty encounter with Kim at the mall earlier in the evening was the most recent example, but at least Monique agreed Kim had been acting totally heinous lately, which took away some of the sting. Although, now that he thought about it, maybe Monique had just been agreeing with him to make him feel better. She was closer friends with Kim than she was with him, after all.

And Mr. Barkin going into awkweird male mentor mode at the Smarty Mart – Ron didn't know how long that would last, but hopefully it would stop before he was driven to find a new job. He couldn't take stories of Mr. B's past escapades with the ladies. _That_ would be beyond wrongsick. But at least now he was home, ready to enjoy a little peace and quiet in his room. Peace and quiet, at least, to the extent that _Zombie Mayhem_ could provide it.

Ron was rummaging through the refrigerator when his father poked his head into the kitchen.

"Hello, son."

"Hey, pop. Just got back from the mall a few minutes ago."

"Is that right? Well, you have a guest over."  
"Say what? Felix?"

"No, Kim Possible. She's waiting upstairs in your room. Maybe she wants to patch things up with you, son – you two should talk."

Although hallucination caused by lack of food might have been the cause, Ron could have sworn he saw his father give him some kind of wink after that last suggestion. He didn't want to imagine what his dad might be suggesting – besides, as far as he could see, there wasn't much chance of reconciliation with KP anymore. Especially not _that_ kind of reconciliation. But then again, it was a little strange she had stopped by so quickly after the mall. She had told him she was going to visit Shego. Maybe she had changed her mind. Did she want to apologize for her immaturity and tell him he was right about everything after all?

"Alright," he said, grabbing some cheese sticks from the fridge that Rufus had somehow overlooked. "I'll go see what she wants. Thanks, dad."

Rufus had been watching television in the living room, and he came bounding across the floor before clambering up onto Ron's shoulder. The two of them took the stairs up to the second floor. It was clear what his mole rat pet wanted; before Ron even knew what had happened, he looked down and found the cheese sticks missing from his hand. Rufus gave him a cheeky grin, and Ron decided he was too lazy to go back and find something else to eat. He wanted to deal with Kim first, anyway.

Once Rufus's chewing died down, the house grew silent. Ron's father was still downstairs, and there was no noise coming from upstairs. He heard one of his steps creak as he reached the top of the stairway. His room was located down a short hall.

The door was ajar, which wasn't all that unusual in itself... but something about it seemed off.

_Kim must be waiting inside_, thought Ron.

Still, it seemed strangely quiet.

He walked slowly down the hall as Rufus perched on his shoulder, digesting, until he reached the door. It was just barely open, but beyond the crack, his room was dark. Even stranger. If Kim was there, wouldn't she have turned the lights on? And if not, since when had Ron _ever_ turned the lights off before going out?

He gave the door a little push.

Inch by inch, it creaked open...

"Ron Stoppable!"

He heard a voice from the darkness – it belonged to Kim Possible. There was a shape in the darkness sitting on the bed. Ron flipped a light switch and saw his girlfriend – ex-girlfriend, he reminded himself – sitting and smiling at him. "Hey, KP," he said. "How come you stopped by? What's the sitch?"

"KP is your nickname for her, isn't it?"

Ron paused, realizing something was wrong. A closer look at Kim's face made him even more confused, until a light bulb went off in his head, coupled with a creepy feeling that made his hairs stand on end. It couldn't be – and yet, now that he had thought of it, somehow he was sure it was true. It was obvious, after what she had just said.

"You're – are you the synthodrone? The one Shego made?"

"That's right. I'm modeled after your girlfriend!"

"Why are you here? Why aren't you with Shego?"

"She kicked me out. Can I stay with you?"

Kim's synthodrone copy seemed to get right to the point. Ron was taken aback by the question. Of course a Kim clone couldn't stay with him - it was freaky. And yet, if Shego really had kicked her out, what exactly was he supposed to do? Send her off to the synthodrone lost and found? He was pretty sure nothing like that existed.

"What – why do you wanna stay with me?" he asked.

"I wanted to learn how to be more like Kim Possible," said the synthodrone. "Is that alright?"

Maybe it was the way the syntho-Kim talked, or the way she carried herself and smiled, but somehow Ron got the feeling he wasn't in any immediate danger. The thought passed through his mind that Shego had sent the synthodrone to assassinate him, but if that was the case, she could have easily caught him by surprise instead of announcing her arrival to his dad and then waiting in his room.

Ron began to realize his comfortable night was slipping away. What was the protocol when it came to dealing with synthodrones who weren't all that bad? Was is possible for a synthodrone to be good? "Can you excuse me for a moment?" he asked.

"Of course!"

Ron walked over to his dresser, giving the synthodrone a nervous smile as he retrieved a new Kimmunicator Wade had given him recently, now that Kim was getting a little unreliable when it came to missions. Or maybe it was a Ronnunicator if he used it. Or just a plain Communicator. He wasn't sure. The synthodrone stared, hands folded patiently in its lap, as Ron darted out of his bedroom and down the hall, into the upstairs bathroom. Wanting a little privacy, he shut and locked the door behind him before sitting down on the side of the bathtub and dialing Wade. After a couple of seconds, the boy's familiar face popped up on the viewing screen.

"What's up, Ron?"

"Wade," he said. "We have a bit of a sitch here."

"What's that?"

"You know that synthodrone version of Kim that Shego made?"

"Ugh. Um, yeah, thanks for reminding me."

"Well, she's here."

"Say _what?_"

Rufus, who had been frozen in shock on Ron's shoulder the whole time, stuck a clawed finger in his mouth to indicate his disgust. "Bleegh!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah," said Ron. "It's crazy stuff. She said Shego kicked her out of the lair, and she wanted to stay with me."

Wade looked hesistant. "Maybe we should talk to Kim about this."

Something about the idea set alarm bells ringing in Ron's head.

"Hold on," he said. "I don't think that's a good idea. Kim would be totally freaked if she heard about this. Remember, the synthodrone clone thing was what set her off in the first place. She's never been the same after that. We kind of had a fight earlier today at the mall, anyway."

"So what do you think we should do?"

Ron had called his friend to get advice, but it sounded like Wade was just as caught off-guard as he was. Back when he and Kim had been working together, their normal strategy for dealing with synthodrones was a few quick punches and hopefully a good puncture to their suit. He remembered the ones Drakken had made – Eric being the bane of his existence, of course, at least until all this stuff with Shego's red-haired love-buddy. They had all been easy to take out. Even Eric was dispatched by nothing more than a hard bite to the toe from Rufus.

But they were all _evil. Or _at least working for supervillains, which was pretty much the same thing as far as Ron was concerned. He and Kim were always in a fight with synthodrones. This syntho-Kim – how could they tell if it was a bad one? Or, if it was just some collection of syntho-whatever that Drakken or Cyrus Bortel or whoever had designed, did it even matter whether it was good or bad? Was it wrong to destroy it? Ron hadn't been planning on pondering moral dilemmas, and he felt his head already begin to pulse.

"I'm not sure what to do yet," he finally said. "But maybe I should just keep her here for now. If she was trying to take me out, I think she would have done it already. Kim might want to get rid of it, anyway – due to their, um, history? And if it's not evil, that would be totally wrong, wouldn't it?"

"Er, I guess," said Wade.

"Besides – maybe she'll turn out to be useful!"

Wade gave him a strange look through the Communicator's screen.

"Ew," said Ron. "Not like _that_, dude. I just mean she might have some useful information if she was in Shego and Drakken's lair for such a long time. We could use her against Shego somehow."

Wade looked like he was intrigued. "Hmm... maybe we could use her for missions, too."

"Yeah, that might be cool!"

"I still think maybe we should tell Kim about this."

Maybe Wade was right – still, Ron wasn't sure how his ex-girlfriend would react to seeing her syntho-copy again. And for all he knew, she might insist on destroying it. For all the trouble synthodrones had given Ron in the past, something about the friendly way the syntho-Kim had greeted him stuck in his mind. It couldn't be _that_ bad, could it? Or maybe it wasn't an it, but a she? If they destroyed her, would that be like – well, murder?

If they did tell Kim, maybe it could wait a little while. It wasn't like she had bothered to keep him in the loop on anything, anyway, other than telling him about some covert mission as an excuse to hang out with Shego more. And Global Justice seemed to be suspicious about whether or not she was even playing on the right side anymore. Ron couldn't imagine her going _that_ far – even if Shego _was_ a bad influence – but as far as he was concerned, the synthodrone had come to _him_ for help. He would decide what to do, not Kim. He didn't need her help on this.

Besides, Wade's idea was intriguing. Who needed Kim Possible when you had a stand-in? It was just like Mr. Barkin had said: Ron needed to step up, take charge, be a man. As soon as Wade had another mission lined up, maybe he and this syntho-Kim could go out for a test run.

XX

* * *

_Notes - Let me know what you guys think. Hope you guys are okay with the 2x a week schedule, too. I need a break from writing - which I keep telling myself I'll take before being unable to resist writing another story - and I didn't want to be updating this forever, so I thought I would pick up the pace so it's all posted before too long, even if that does cut down on reviews._


	11. Rift

**Rift**

XX

The class had been almost asleep before, but the explosion was more than enough to wake them up.

"So there you go," said Mr. Barkin. "You've got two minerals that are usually safe by themselves, but you put them together, and you get something a lot more reactive! They're both dangerous with the right bonds, under the right conditions. The same thing can have different states. Chemistry's all about change."

The acrid smoke from the chemical reaction wafted through the air. Some of Mr. Barkin's class kept waiting to see if another explosion was coming, but a number of students had already gone back to sleep. Kim was awake, of course – she always dutifully payed attention when she was in class. The lesson was at and end, however, and the bell rang just as their teacher began to clean up the mess he had made. Mr. Barkin wagged his finger at passing students while they raced for the classroom doors.

"Don't forget, pop quiz tomorrow!"

One of the students scratched their heads. "It's not a pop quiz if you announce it to us, is it?"

"Don't argue with me, Hendricks!"

"Yes, sir!"

Kim tried to blend into the crowd surging through the door in hopes of avoiding her teacher's notice. Unfortunately, Mr. Barkin caught her glance as she passed by and stepped away from his desk. "Possible," he said, "mind if we have a little chat?"

"I'm kind of busy, Mr. Barkin."

"I can write you a note. We need to talk about your absences-"

"Sorry, Mr. Barkin, I have to get to my next class!"

She hurried through the door more quickly, ducking in and out of streams of students passing through the hallway. She risked a glance back at the classroom door; Mr. Barkin stood in the doorway and watched her go, a frown on his face. Kim repressed a laugh as she turned a corner and completed her escape. Her teacher had already caught her in two painfully awkward meetings in the past; she didn't want to deal with any more, and she could pretty much guess whatever he was going to say at this point, anyway. She thought about going to her locker, but noticed Ron down the hall at his own locker. She paused for a moment, unsure of what to do, until a voice boomed out of the school's PA system.

_Kim Possible, please report to the school's back entrance._

Ron glanced up from his locker after hearing the message and noticing Kim down the hall. She met his gaze for a moment, and was about to nod in his direction when he shut the locker's door and walked away in the opposite direction. Apparently, he didn't feel like talking. The back entrance, the voice had said. Kind of a strange announcement. And it sounded weird, like a woman had been masking her voice by speaking as low as possible. Something told Kim that a certain brunette rhymes-with-witch was waiting outside the school as some kind of prank.

_Bonnie Rockwaller_, she thought with a grimace. She had been doing a lot of trash-talking lately. Although it wasn't like the trash talking had been kept to a reasonable level in the past or anything. Maybe it was time to teach that girl a lesson.

The waves of students in the hallway began to thin out as they made their way to their next classes. Kim got to the back entrance of the school and burst outside, not knowing what to expect, but half expecting Bonnie to be there laughing at something or other. Maybe with a camera in one hand and a female blowup doll in the other. But there was no Bonnie. No one at all, in fact. Kim stepped outside, quickly glancing up over her head to make sure nothing was set to fall down on her as she opened the door. But she was safe. She stepped out onto the concrete and looked around, confused.

"Hello?"

There was no answer.

Kim was about to turn back into the school when a hand suddenly snaked around over her mouth. She let out a muffled screech – did Bonnie really think she could pull something like this off? Whoever had sneaked up behind her wrapped another arm around her waist, and Kim was about to jab her elbow back in an attempt to knock herself loose when she noticed the green skin on the arms. Her captor laughed loudly.

"Guess who?"

"Not funny!" said Kim as the hand released itself. She whirled around and gave Shego a mock-glare. "I totally thought somebody was about to play a prank on me. What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd stop by for a visit. The office window was open, so I sneaked in and made an announcement on the PA system before any of your teachers came back. Man, that brought back memories."

"You were a troublemaker in high school, huh?"

"You know it."

"It's nice of you to visit, but in case you didn't notice, I'm at school right now."

"Don't care. Come with me."

Shego dashed off before Kim could object, disappearing into a wooded area that stopped just beyond the small parking lot behind the school. Kim hesitated for a moment before following her – she supposed chasing Shego around amongst the trees was better than standing out in the open where anyone could see them. Shego darted away from her, making her way in a sort of semicircle through the woods as the two of them circled alongside the school. "Where are you going?" shouted Kim.

"Catch me if you can!"

Kim did not have to run for long – soon, they reached the edge of the woods again. Shego darted out into the open. Kim followed, but stumbled for a moment as she realized they were not far from the football field. She could see some students filtering out of the school for gym practice, a couple of them idly passing a football between them – if Shego kept running, she'd end up right in the middle of them.

"Wait!" yelled Kim. "Come on, Shego, you're gonna embarrass me!"

She was not headed for the field, however. Kim caught up to her behind the bleachers, where Shego made her way beneath the wooden benches, weaving in between the metal poles that held up the stands. She finally stopped, and Kim put a hand on her arm. Shego turned and kissed her briefly, before looking out from their hiding place at the Middleton High School students on the field.

"Nice place to be naughty, huh?"

"Um, call me old-fashioned," said Kim, "but I always thought the _bed_ was a nice place to be naughty."

"You have a lot to learn, Princess."

In a now familiar movement, Shego pushed Kim to the ground and straddled her, running her hands over her body. The afternoon sun had been glaring, but the two of them were sheltered under the shade of the bleachers. Kim felt wet grass against her back, the dew from that morning still lingering in the shade. Shego pressed down, kissing her, running a tongue over her neck. Kim's breathing quickened. She looked furtively around; it was unlikely anyone could see them in their little hidden spot. She protested, pushing back, but she knew she'd give in. She always did.

"Give it to me, Kimmie."

Shego's hands became more demanding. Black hair and red hair tangled together in a mess as the two of them squirmed in the grass, and Kim could hear the faint cheers and chatter of her fellow students out on the field, mixing with her own whispered moans as the hands worked her magic. Shego wanted to get it from her? _Fine_, Kim thought. She fought back, twisting out from under the woman and knocking her to the ground on her back. Kim mounted her, flexing a leg on either side, pinning Shego down. _Green on green_, she thought, her hand clamping Shego's wrist, holding it down tightly against the grass.

She was about to lean down again, taste Shego's lips, caress her skin, give her what she was begging for, but just as Kim drew closer, she caught sight of the field in the cracks between the bleacher's rows. She paused. The gym class was practicing out on the field, playing a game of football. She could see Mr. Barkin, whistling and pointing angrily at a fumbled football.

She could see Ron, running for a pass.

"Come on, Kimmie, what's the holdup?"

Kim looked back at the woman pinned beneath her. Shego lifted her back from the ground, wrapping her arms around Kim's waist and pulling her in closer, bucking up just a little as Kim's legs scissored her waist. She felt the urge to give in again, for just a moment, but they were right out in the open. Anyone could see them. At any moment, Bonnie, anyone, could walk right up to the bleachers-

"Stop, okay?"  
Shego ignored her, running a hand behind her head, fingers cutting paths through her hair as they kissed.

"-I said _stop!_"

Kim pushed her back. And just in time, too. A shadow came over them as Shego sat back against one of the metal supports holding up the bleachers, and the two of them looked over through the rows to see one of the football players on the other side. He seemed to be taking a short break from practice, and had walked over to the base of the bleachers to grab a drink from a water bottle. Kim sat on the ground, chest heaving from a combination of arousal, excitement, and fear. They waited until the boy hydrated himself and returned to the field with a yell from Mr. Barkin.

"That was too close," she said.

Shego grinned wolfishly. "What would you do if you got caught?"

Kim had no answer, as she didn't know what she'd do. Pretty much everyone around the school seemed to be aware of all her sexual identity drama lately, anyway. Some of them thought she had a thing for Bonnie, while some of them knew at least vaguely about her thing with Shego. Some of them combined the two, and some of them had even more outlandish theories about why Kim had been skipping so many classes lately. Orgies, clones, robots, you name it. Still, she didn't need more headaches piled on top of the abuse she already got from Bonnie and a few other classmates.

"I don't know why you're trying to get me in trouble all the time," said Kim. "I'm already missing my class."

"Gimme a break, Princess. Isn't this better than a class? Besides, Doctor D's been gone all day, so I figured this was better than hanging around the lair, bored out of my mind with those stupid henchmen for company."

"Where is he?"

"I have no idea. Why, you wanna go on a mission and stop his evil schemes?"

It was a joke, but Kim was caught off guard by the question. She had been shirking her mission duty, like her classes. And it _did_ seem like the two of them hadn't seen much of Drakken lately, even though they had been in his lair on a few occasions now, often for long periods of time. Maybe the man was just trying to avoid them, finding the whole situation awkward. She couldn't blame him. She hadn't been keeping in touch with Global Justice, either – this new relationship with Shego had consumed her attention. If Drakken was up to something, she _would_ have to stop him eventually. But as for how Shego would react, and which side she would take? It was still a mystery.

"Why don't you skip the rest of your classes?" said Shego. "How many do you have left, like two or three?"

"I don't know," said Kim.

"Come on, it'll be fun. We'll get something to eat."

Kim wondered if Shego was always this way. She knew Shego did her own thing, but something about the time they had spending together lately was strange. The visit to the random club in Go City, the sex on the top of that hill that overlooked the city, and now dropping in on her at school and copping a feel under the bleachers – it was all, well, a little high schoolish. Even for Kim. And Shego was definitely out of high school. It wasn't like she was old or anything, but Kim couldn't help wondering if getting a little hanky panky under the bleachers was something she had done in the past, when she was a teen. Maybe Kim was just bringing out Shego's more sophomoric side. Or maybe their relationship together was reminding Shego of something else.

"Alright," she said. "I'll skip. I guess I'd have to avoid Barkin all day if I stayed in school, anyway."

"Yeah, that guy's a little awkward," said Shego. "Especially if he has a ukulele around. Why are you avoiding him, anyway?"

"He probably wants to talk to me about how I'm throwing away my life by hanging out with you."

"Smart guy. Awkward, but smart."

Kim stuck her tongue out. "Yeah, yeah. And college – he's been trying to set up meetings with me about college, but seeing as how that translates into him telling me I'm going to be a dropout and sell drugs on the street if I keep going the way I'm going, I've been trying to put that off lately."

"College, huh? Where are you gonna go, anyway?"

"I don't know. I was thinking about someplace overseas. Or maybe Upperton – that's where my mom went for medical school."

"You thinking about turning into a brain surgeon?"  
"Maybe just to figure out how _yours_ ticks."

Shego punched Kim playfully on the arm. "You know, if I corrupt you, you won't be going to college. But don't worry. Once we take over the world, you won't need a degree. You could just nullify everybody else's degree. I think Doctor D's planning on doing that. He's always a little sore about his college days."

"He went to college with my dad, you know."

"He's mentioned that."

Kim idly wondered when Drakken had gone off the rails. The man was obviously well-educated, but when had he chosen the path of supervillainy? When had _Shego_ turned her back on her old life, for that matter?

Over that first summer when they had still been enjoying the first blossoming of their relationship, Kim and Ron had talked about the subject from time to time. What they would do in the future, what their plans were, whether they would end up going to the same place. The conversations usually fizzled out before they said too much, though, because both of them had sensed they would be going in different directions, somehow. Ron had not been applying himself, and Kim always worried about what he'd be doing after high school.

Now, of course, a lot of people were thinking the same thing about her. Her parents, Mr. Barkin. Probably Ron, too. She wondered what the future held; would she join Global Justice? Something about that idea had always rubbed her the wrong way, especially lately, even if she was working for them right now. Would she turn everyone's worries to reality and join Shego and Drakken as they tried to take over the world? Again, it seemed unlikely. Although, between the three of them, Kim couldn't help thinking they stood a good chance. She was just being honest.

Whatever she did, it was in the future. Right now, she was happy enough to be with Shego. Even if it was all part of some mission. Whether it was real or not, it _felt_ real. And it was a good excuse to skip school, too.

XX

Ron walked over to the bleachers, wheezing and holding his side after a particularly heavy blow from one of the linemen. At least he seemed to be getting better at catching the ball. And by now, he had the running thing down pretty well. He would have thought getting sacked by henchmen on a regular basis while he was on missions with Kim would harden him up, but one thing Ron had noticed through the years was that you never really got used to having someone twice your size smacking into you.

"Good practice, Stoppable!"

Mr. Barkin slapped him on the back, sending a fresh wave of pain through him. "Thanks, Mr. B," he said as he filled a paper cup with water from a gallon jug that Mr. Barkin had brought out to set by the bleachers. Being in gym had always been tough, but now that he was on the football team, his teacher was really ratcheting up the pace.

"Hey, Stoppable, nice catch back there," said one of his teammates. "Halfway across the field – that was awesome!"

"Thanks, dude."

Yet another slap on the back. Ron winced as his teammate walked off. At least the guy seemed to be pretty friendly; he and his teammates didn't always have that much in common, but they had been bonding a little since they were on the football team together. Ron sipped his cup, but jumped in fright and spilled water on his waist as a figure darted out from behind the bleachers.

"_Kim?_ What are you doing back there?"

"Did you wet yourself?"

Ron looked down at his crotch. "No, just water."

"That's good!"

Ron looked at Kim Possible for a moment, wondering why she was suddenly being so friendly when the two of them had been avoiding each other all day at school, until he realized: this wasn't the real Kim. It was the synthodrone. He gasped and took a quick look around to make sure no one was watching before he grabbed the syntho-Kim by the arm and pulled her back under the bleachers. "What are you _doing_ here?" he asked.

"I got bored at your house. I thought I'd come to school with you!"

"What? No no, you can't do that!"

"Why not? I thought I could see the real Kim."

"No, that's bad. I mean, maybe you'll meet her eventually – this time with clothes on - but we have to keep you a secret for now. You should stay at my house, okay?"

"You want me to go back now?"

"Yeah. But my dad will think it's weird if you're hanging out in my house all day. Er, just break through my window, okay? Hang out in my room. Read some books or something. Or go on the computer, but no matter what you do, don't look at my internet history."

"I don't know what that is!"

"Good."

The synthodrone looked like she was about to leave, but she stopped for a moment and pointed at a spot where the two of them stood in the shade beneath the bleachers. It didn't look different than any other spot, although the grass was a little flattened. "What is it?" asked Ron.

"Kim was here. The real Kim. With Shego."

"What? Seriously?"

"Yes. I saw them both run off into the forest just before I got here."

Ron looked in the direction of the trees, but he couldn't see his ex-girlfriend, or any green-skinned harlots he didn't care to name. He grumbled at the thought. Shego was visiting their _school_ now? And from the sound of it, Kim was playing hooky again. He felt his mood drop like a stone as the synthodrone ran off in the direction of his neighborhood. He didn't know what was going on with Kim lately, but it scared him a little.

Sometimes, it was like he barely knew her anymore.

XX

Getting to the place had been difficult, but that wasn't really a strike against it. And Drakken had certainly chosen more remote locations for his lairs before. Some of his favorites were rocky crags on isolated islands, but those were a little hard to get sometimes. This mountain location would be a good spot for a new lair, especially since the temporary rent-a-lair he and Shego had been living in was not exactly well-hidden. He just hoped that he'd be able to take Shego with him once he got his new place started. But that depended on how certain things worked out.

He and Assad Sacke had been taking a breather after reaching the GPS coordinates. The two of them looked out over the jagged landscape of the Rockies. This was definitely a good location; far enough to the west of Middleton that he had some privacy, but not so far as to keep him from what he liked to consider his unofficial hometown. Well, technically his official hometown, in the sense that he was born there.

If Drakken wasn't mistaken, Cyrus Bortel's laboratory was actually quite close, too – maybe twenty or thirty minutes away by hovercraft, nestled into the crags of another mountain peak. The man had good taste, if he ever chose to a be a supervillain. Of course, the fact that Bortel had brazenly stolen his synthodrone technology was testament to his good taste as well, even if he didn't have the talent to back it up. Once Drakken got moved in, he supposed he could visit his neighbor sometime and steal back that technology, along with whatever tweaks and upgrades Bortel had tacked on. It was only fair.

Now, however, it was time to take a tour at his new real estate. The two of them took a utility lift down into the caverns where his lair would soon be built.

"So why aren't we here with Shego?" asked Assad.

Drakken laughed and patted his henchman on the back. "It's like you read my mind," he said. "We can't take Shego because I don't know if I can trust her anymore."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. She's got my teen nemesis hanging out in our lair all the time now. What am I supposed to do, ask Kim to ignore me while I work on my next plan to take over the world?"

"I thought Shego said she could convert her."

Drakken had definitely heard that from Shego more than a few times now, but he wasn't convinced. It wasn't like he had ruled the possibility out – having Kim Possible on his side would be a huge coup, and he'd love to see the look on that buffoon's face when his ex-girlfriend ended up liking not just the ladies, but evil as well. But he didn't have the kind of faith Shego had in that teen. His brain wasn't addled by hormones, for one thing. And for all he knew, Kim Possible was there spying on him, biding her time until she could throw him back in the hoosegow.

"Shego can try to work her magic as much as she wants," said Drakken as the lift came to a halt, opening up into a large cavern with a gaping crack running through the middle of it. "In the meantime, I'll be working on my own plans. If we can get Kim Possible on our side, that's just wonderful. If not, hopefully we can trust Shego to keep her good sense and work with us when she realizes it's a lost cause. But it's possible she is thinking of going back to the old days of Team Go - if that's the case, we'll have to cut her loose. Which is why we need to keep this new lair a secret for now."

"Yes, sir."

Drakken stepped into the cavern, Assad stumbling behind him as he tried to hold a packed picnic lunch that the two of them would soon be eating. He looked over his future digs: not bad at all. The previous tenant had set up some basic lighting, so the whole of the cavern could be seen. There were a few scattered pieces of trash, some boards and carpentry supplies that had been left by the last owner after he had aborted an attempt to renovate the place, but he could have the dump looking like a high-tech lair in no time. He'd keep the cavernous look, of course – half the fun of building a lair in a place like this was the motif.

"So how did you get this place?" asked Assad. "I never understood how you could afford new lairs all the time. Especially after you were in prison for so long."

"I wasn't in prison _that_ long," snapped Drakken.

"You said it felt like forever!"

"Did not! Anyway, I purchased this place on the cheap from a rich software developer. He thought it would be hip to get a home up in the mountains, but he failed to consider the fact that he would be miles from any human habitation. That, and the real estate agent failed to tell him about the gigantic underground rift running through what was supposed to be his living room. So he changed his mind. Bad for him, good for me. You can get a lot of prime lair locations because of things like that, if you keep an eye out for them."

"I always thought you just built a lair and hoped nobody noticed your zoning violations."

"Sometimes I do that too."

Drakken stepped up to the edge of the crack running through the cavern floor. He looked up at the cavern's roof; the crack also extended across the rock above them, as if some kind of invisible knife had come down from the sky and sliced through the mountain's interior, splitting the cave right through the middle. It was one reason he had chosen the spot. The crack went deep into the earth, and Drakken was hoping he could put the stolen Tunneler for the Utilization of Sub-Crustal Heat Induction and Energy to use, just as soon as he figured out exactly what it did. He should have demanded an instruction booklet from Hench before making off with it. Learning how to handle his TUSHIE had been trickier than he had expected.

And if he couldn't figure it out, that was alright - the gaping subterranean gorge had a certain aesthetic appeal, too. Maybe he could throw stuff into it and see if he heard it hit the bottom.

"Call some of the henchmen, Assad," said Drakken. "I think we shall begin setting up the new lair today. Make sure none of them let Shego or Kim Possible know what's going on."

"Can we eat lunch first?"

Drakken looked over at the picnic basket and folded red and white checkered tablecloth Assad was holding. "Oh, yes," he said. "Let's do that."

The two of them sat down and set up their picnic spread. As Drakken poured himself a mug of Cocoa Moo from a thermos, he thought about his new lair. It would be magnificent. Better than any of the others. And he'd build an amazing ray gun of some kind, despite Shego's nagging. Sometimes he just got into certain moods, that was all – and lately, he had been in the mood for ray guns and lasers. Nothing wrong with that.

"If we're going to make a new lair," said Assad, "do you think I can get back my old job as Chief Officer in charge of Kim Possible detection?"

"We both know Possible gets into our lairs one way or the other."

"Yes, but it did pay pretty well."

"What do you have to complain about? Aren't you union?"

Assad shook his head. "You told us if anyone joined the Henchman's Union, you'd personally throw us out of a hovercraft while we were a thousand feet over the ground."

"Did I? Boy, I must have been in a bad mood when I said that," said Drakken with a laugh. "Still, don't join the union."

Assad nodded meekly and bit into a cracker with cheese spread.

"You won't need to worry about money when I have the world clenched in my fist, Assad. And it's only a matter of time, especially after that Li'l Diablo scheme – we were so _close!_ I just need to find my evil groove again. Kim Possible and Shego may turn against me, but if they know what's good for them, they'll join me. And then, Assad? Nothing will stop me!"

Drakken cackled and wrung his hands together between bites of his cheese-covered crackers. Crumbs flew from his mouth, and his mind flitted wildly between various half-formed schemes as he thought about the future. It would be interesting to have Kim Possible working with him. There was no way he could trust her right now, but maybe he needed to test her. Bring her along while he and Shego stole something, perhaps. Help Shego bring the teen over to the dark side. Drakken wouldn't belive it until he saw it, but still - if Possible was already willing to dip a toe into the deep end, maybe it wouldn't be long before she decided to take a dive.

XX

The Gestation Tank opened sideways, the glass front revolving sort of like a sliding glass door in order to allow the fluid inside to spill out in a torrent. Cyrus didn't step back in time – his pants were soaked as the wave of fluid came out of the vat, spilling across the floor and seeping through the grating. He made a mental note: upgrade the Gestation Tank design. At least he had settled on a cool name for them, something that sounded appropriate for a supervillain's lair. He watched with scientific interest as the bulky figure slumped out of the vat and rolled across the floor in a wet heap, gasping for breath.

_Respiration, check._

The synthodrone lay on the ground for a few moments before it coughed loudly a few times to expel some excess fluid and began to breathe regularly. Another few moments of rest, and it slowly began to get up from the floor. It was shaky at first, but it stood up on its own two feet as it looked in confusion at the empty, open Gestation Tank.

_Locomotion, check._

The synthodrone stared at him.

"Are you my mommy?"

Cyrus chuckled and pushed his glasses up a little as he gave the birth sheet on his clipboard another mark.

_Speech, check._

"Not quite," he said. "But you could say that I am your father. Creator would be a better term."

"What's that?" asked the synthodrone, pointing at the open vat.

"That is your nest. Where you were born."

The synthodrone nodded as it looked around the production center, still getting a grip on its surroundings. It always took them a little while to recover from the gestation process, but still, it was a lot faster than any kind of organic birth, that was for sure. Cyrus made notes of the synthodrone's recovery time, its behavior, whether or not it seemed to have any dangerous intelligence levels. He was still tweaking his process, but it was already obvious; there was no need for henchmen from someone like Jack Hench. He could make them better, and faster, himself.

"What are your orders?" the synthodrone asked.

"I do not know. Go play cards in the lounge or something. But don't get the couch wet – dry yourself off first! There are some towels in the supply closet, right over there."

The synthodrone nodded and walked off as Cyrus watched him go. Already, the shakiness was gone – it walked with a purpose, balanced and nimble despite its hefty bulk. He didn't need to make a lot of them right now, but he already had a few at his command for around-the-lair tasks. He had dismissed the ones he had hired from Hench, mostly because he didn't want them having any questions of loyalty when they saw him dragging Hench into his lair, unconscious and bound. That was another useful point in favor of synthodrones: no questions of loyalty, if you programmed them right.

He had missed the boat with the syntho-Kim, but then, he knew _her_ weakness: Shego. As long as he kept her hooked with promises of reuniting the two of them, she would be eating out of his hand, just like the newer, dumber models.

"Let's see," said Bortel. "Things to do, things to do..."

He looked at a checklist attached to his clipboard. The syntho-Kim had uploaded a report earlier. Things seemed to be going well with Ron Stoppable. Just as he had expected, the boy was too kind to turn away someone in need, even if that someone was not real. Especially if that someone looked like his ex-girlfriend. Now that he had a mole in their midst, he could take Ron Stoppable or Kim Possible by surprise if he needed to - but for now, he wanted to wait and gather information.

Another bullet point in his daily schedule was concerned with Bill Vito, the mayor of Go City. The man had asked for some upgrades to his love-bot, Debra. Apparently she wasn't bendy enough for him. Some of Vito's clients really creeped him out, but when it came to a mail order sex-drone business, he supposed he didn't have much room to judge, especially if he wanted to keep customers. And Vito paid very well. He did seem to have some fondness for the drone, too, seeing as he had sent it on a first-class flight from Go City instead of just scrunching it up in a box and mailing it by air freight like other customers had. It was waiting around in one of his labs at this very moment.

He'd have to get around to that sooner or later, but he had to admit that the mail-order business was already boring him. He didn't want to let down his customers, but he had moved on from that, after all. Especially after the kidnapping. Cyrus Bortel was moving into the big leagues.

As Jack Hench was on his mind, Cyrus decided to pay the man a visit. He left the synthodrone production area and took an elevator down to a lower level, where he was in the process of building a number of jail cells in a little prison sublevel. A containment area seemed like an important feature for any good lair, and now that he had kidnapped someone, it was obviously going to come in handy. He could have just thrown Hench into his command center, tied to a chair or something, but it was best to do things by the book when he had some time to spare.

"Jack Hench," he said after leaving the elevator and arriving at the man's cell. Hench looked at him through the vertical rays of red-hot energy which locked him inside the prison cell. "I hope you are doing well? My henchmen got you your lunch?"

"Yes, they did. I noticed you don't have any of _my_ henchmen anymore?"  
"Possible security threat," Cyrus explained. "And I am making my own now."

"Is that Dr. Drakken's synthodrone technology you're using?"

"It is _not_," said Cyrus. "Or, it was, but I have made significant modifications, and it is now my own invention. I simply borrowed it from Drakken as a way to speed up the process a little. But I could have easily come up with the idea myself!"

"Okay, okay. Don't have to get testy."

Cyrus narrowed his eyes at his captive. He motioned for a couple of synthodrone guards to come over – both of which looked a little bored, although it was hard to tell if that was just the dull expression he had programmed them with. "You two," he said, disabling the cell's energy bars, "take Mr. Hench along with you and follow me. I wish to show him something."

Cyrus led his henchmen and captive back to the elevator, making their way back up to the main floor of the lair, where the synthodrone production center and central control room were located. The doors slid open, and Cyrus made his way to the control room first. Hench struggled a little against the tight grips in which his two guards were holding him, but the synthodones were far stronger than him. Cyrus laughed as he watched Hench's futile efforts.

"You know you're not going to get away with this," said Hench. "I've been missing for days now. My new secretary would have noticed by now, and Kim Possible is probably already on her way. But hey, don't feel bad - this was okay for a first effort at being a supervillain. I don't think I'll be giving you any discounts after kidnapping me, though. You shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you."

"No one is looking for you."

"What makes you think that?"

Cyrus pressed a button on a computer console. A voice rang out through the room.

_Miss Harcourt? I just wanted to let you know that I've come down with a bit of the flu. I'll be out of the office for the next few days – hold my meetings, please. Thank you._

Hench listened with a confused look on his face. Cyrus laughed.

"Yes, that is your own voice. I was able to record your speech and reproduce its tone for the call. Miss Harcourt was not expecting you in the office over the last few days. And besides – I think your little touch of the flu has passed."

Hench looked even more confused, and Bortel pressed another button to bring up a viewing screen. He loved pressing buttons and bringing things up. It was less efficient than just having a viewing screen right there to view instead of making it pop out of a hidden compartment, but what he lost in efficiency, he gained in style points. An image played on the screen.

"That's Hench Co!" said Hench.

"Correct."

Someone appeared to be filming the interior of Hench Co – specifically, the little hallway leading from Jack Hench's office to the lobby outside. The camera view approached the end of the hallway and turned to reveal Miss Harcourt, sitting at the receptionist's desk. She was having a conversation on the phone, but after she hung up, she looked up directly at the camera. Cyrus and Hench watched as an arm appeared from the camera's view, reaching forward and laying a hand on the edge of the desk. Cyrus could see Hench's face twist in realization – it was not the cameraman's arm.

It was his own arm.

"Miss Harcourt," spoke a voice on the screen. "Any messages?"

"No, sir. But you missed that meeting the other day. I thought it was important."

The voice hesitated.

"I'll catch it later. Thank you."

The camera view turned back to the hallway, leaving the lobby and walking back to Jack Hench's office. Cyrus turned to his captive, unable to restrain his glee. He always liked showing off his inventions.

"Was that me?" asked Hench. "A – a synthodrone version of me?"

"That is correct! Why do you think I had my synthodrones talking to you in the cell over the last few days? Why do you think I kidnapped you in the first place? I've been observing your behavior, your appearance, so that I could make a new you, Mr. Hench. I am able to tap into the synthodrone's eyesight and see what they see. You have a replacement running Hench Co. And, by extension, _I_ am running Hench Co. There is no need for me to pay for your expensive products anymore, not that a genius like myself needs many of them."

Hench looked worried for a moment, although he eventually gave Cyrus a grudging nod. "Not bad," he said. "Not bad at all. So what are you going to do with me now?"

"I had not thought about that. I suppose I do not really need you anymore. Perhaps I should dispose of you."

Hench gulped before laughing nervously.

"Hey, you don't want to do that!"

"Why not?"

"I could be useful."

"Or a liability. What if you escape? No, I think my idea is best - disposal seems safest. Synthodrones, take him to the giant garbage disposal!"

"_Wait!_"

Cyrus held up a hand, stopping the synthodrones before they dragged Hench away.

"If you kill me now," the man said, "you'll never know what meeting I missed."

Although it took Cyrus a moment to understand his comment, he remembered what Miss Harcourt had said on the live feed coming from Hench's synthodrone copy at Hench Co: something about missing an important meeting.

"Very well," he said. "You have my interest. What meeting?"

"I can't tell you."

Cyrus rolled his eyes. Clearly, he was being toyed with.

"Take him away."

"Wait, wait! Okay – it's a meeting with some very important people. I'm the member of an administrative board that you might want to gain access to. If you think Hench Co is useful, you don't know the half of it."

Cyrus definitely felt his interest being piqued. "Go on."

"Well, you know about Dr. Director, don't you?"

"I do."

"You didn't _really_ think someone spending all their time here in Middleton would be the head of a multi-national crime-fighting organization, did you? She's an important figure, but she's not at the top."

Cyrus stared at Hench for a moment, trying to figure out whether or not he was telling the truth. It could be he was just using the comment from Miss Harcourt earlier as a way to buy himself some time. But if he wasn't lying, this sounded promising. Very promising. Maybe, just for now, Cyrus would keep his captive around.

"Tell me everything you know about this board, so that I can have your synthodrone contact them and infiltrate."

"Oh, no," said Hench. "I'm only useful as long as you have to deal with me."

Cyrus felt his eyelid twitch. Dealing with Jack Hench could be more irritating than he had anticipated. But then again, dealing with Betty Director could be irritating, too. Maybe he could kidnap _her_ and make another copy. He got the feeling she'd be harder to bag than Jack Hench, but assuming the man wasn't lying about his connections, Cyrus might have just found a way in. He'd have to do some persuading to get Hench to start talking, but if he could gain access to the soft underbelly of Global Justice, well – the possibilities were limitless.

XX

* * *

_**Notes** - I forgot to post this on Friday and then ended up having a pretty crappy weekend with work and a cold, but it's up now. Yay. Hope you guys liked it, reviews are appreciated._


	12. Team Possibles

**Team Possibles**

XX

There was a certain rhythm to the way Kim and Ron avoided each other. Monique thought it was almost like a standoff; as soon as one noticed the other in the hallway, there was a brief pause, like they were both getting ready to draw pistols. Sometimes she thought it was more like a dance, though. When they both had the same class, they ended up circling around each other to find seats that wouldn't be too close together, or if they were both about to go through the classroom door, they would hesitate to see who would go first. They had reached the point where it was down to an art form.

"Are they driving you crazy, too?"

Felix wheeled up beside her. She had been watching Kim and Ron awkwardly squeeze out the door from their last class, both about to head for their lockers, until they realized it was in the same direction. Ron, who was the more amusing of the two it came to avoiding Kim, did a strange wiggling move before noticing Monique and Felix down the hall. As he strode toward them, trying to recover his awkward wiggle into some kind of smooth stride, Monique answered Felix's question with a nod.

"They can't do this forever," he said.

She shrugged. "They're both pretty stubborn. I mean, you know all about Ron, right?"

"Yeah. I guess you have a point."

"My girl Kim might be a bit more mature sometimes, but not lately. And she can be just as stubborn."

"Well, if I have to hear one more complaint about backstabbing from-"

Ron had gotten close enough to overhear their muted conversation, and Felix cut off as he approached. "Hey, guys!" he shouted, his enthusiasm just a little too forced. "How's life?"

"We just saw you two minutes ago, Ron," said Monique. "We were all in the same class together."

"Haha, yeah, isn't that crazy!"

Now that school was out, Monique was in the mood for a little snack at Bueno Nacho. Normally, she would have been in the mood to hang out with Ron and Felix, since Kim had been unavailable lately – she had a lot of homework that night, and she really didn't want to start until nine in the evening, at least – but just the possibility of listening to Ron whining about Kim began to put a damper on her spirits. It wasn't like he did it _all_ the time, and he had been dropping it off lately, but it had gone on enough to become irritating when it came up at all anymore.

And what if Kim walked over to them in a moment and overheard Monique mentioning Bueno Nacho? Most likely she'd make an excuse to avoid being forced to hang out with Ron at the place, but on the off chance she _did_ join them, it would be a guaranteed afternoon of silence. Somehow, the rift between Kim and Ron was making it harder for her to even hang out with her best friend. Talk about annoying. She noticed Felix flashing her a glance – he was probably thinking the same thing.

"Sorry, I can't hang out," said Ron, as if reading their thoughts.

Monique was a little relieved that she didn't have to bring anything up. "Oh, that's too bad," she said.

"Too bad, dude," said Felix. "A little zombie bashing would have been fun. Got homework?"

"Um, yeah. Something like that."

Before either of them could press him for any more details, Ron glanced back and noticed Kim approaching. Before she could reach them, he walked hurriedly out the front door and disappeared into the afternoon sunlight, leaving Monique to wonder why he had sounded so evasive about what he was doing that afternoon. Kim smiled as she joined them, although it was obvious her eyes had been trailing Ron as he left the building.

"What's up, guys?" she said, grinning.

Another case of forced enthusiasm.

"Just thinking about our afternoon plans," said Monique. Now that Ron was gone, she thought about asking Kim and Felix to Bueno Nacho instead – Kim didn't complain quite as much as Ron did, after all. She was a little less enthusiastic about drama when it involved her instead of someone like, say, Bonnie Rockwaller. But then, Monique still hesitated in bringing up the idea of hanging out. Things had been a bit awkward with Kim after she had left that last shift at Club Banana.

"I'd join you guys," said Kim, "but I'm a little busy this afternoon."

Monique and Felix exchanged glances. Two evasions in a row!

"Mission?" asked Monique.

She tried to avoid making the question sound like an accusation, but there was one thing in particular she had in mind when she thought about Kim's 'missions' nowadays. And judging by Kim's expression, her friend knew exactly what she was thinking. "Yeah," said Kim, slowly. "I have to pay a visit to Dementor, actually."

Monique wondered whether or not it was a lie. She felt sad that she even had to wonder.

"Well," said Felix, "good luck with that."

"Thanks. Bye, guys!"

Kim waved at the two of them as she left the building. Monique and Felix were left standing in the hallway as they watched her go. By this time, most of the other students had already left the building as well. The noise died down as the hallway emptied out, a few scraps of waste paper and discarded assignments settling to the floor in the aftermath of their classmates' stampede.

"This is way too weird," said Felix, breaking the silence.

"You're tellin' me."

"I wish there was some way to get them back together, but anytime I tell Ron he should just talk to her and try to work things out, he gets all defensive about it. Not that I can blame him, after what Kim did to him."

"Hey," said Monique, feeling a burst of defensiveness about her best friend, "it ain't all Kim's fault! Okay, maybe the whole Shego thing is totally heinous, but it's not like Ron was being the best boyfriend, you know? The boy's gotta grow up a little, and Kim _did_ try to talk things out with him, but he wouldn't give her a chance!"

Felix looked like he was about to argue, but fell short of saying anything. The two of them glared at each other for a moment until they burst out laughing. Somehow, the whole situation seemed ludicrous.

"They're even making us argue with each other," said Felix.

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

The sound of loud footsteps rang out from behind them.

"It's a shame, is what it is! A SHAME!"

They jumped in fright at the exclamation, and Monique felt a beefy hand slap her on the shoulder as Mr. Barkin appeared, joining them as they stared at the school's main door. He shook his head before looking down at his students. "Those two were good together," he said. "Ah, the twists and turns of teen romance!"

Monique coughed awkwardly. "Yup."

"I've tried to talk sense into Possible," said Mr. Barkin, gazing at the door with a steely stare. "I told her she's flushing her college career down the toilet – nobody's going to pick up a freshman with an international criminal record for theft, private property infiltration, and attempted world domination. Unless she tried to apply for an internship to the CIA, maybe. I even tried to give Stoppable a few tips on being a man, but I gotta be honest - I saw this coming from _him_."

Monique waited patiently as Mr. Barkin went on his spiel, but he trailed off, apparently lost in thought about his wayward students. Felix tried to slowly inch his wheelchair forward in order to escape Mr. Barkin's grasp, which brought the man's attention back to the present. "What are you two still doing here?" he said. "School's out. Go home, do your homework!"

"Yes, Mr. Barkin."

Their teacher left them, headed back to an office. They breathed a sigh of relief and went outside. It was a gorgeous afternoon. Maybe Kim and Ron were being sucked down by their own drama, but Monique wasn't going to let them pull her down with them. If they wanted to avoid each other, fine. She wasn't going to worry about it anymore.

"Bueno Nacho?" asked Felix.

"It's like you read my mind."

XX

Infiltrating the Seniors' island lair-cum-villa, whether by speedboat or parachute, had become second nature to Ron. On this particular occasion, they had chosen the speedboat. Kim – not the real one, he had to remind himself from time to time – sat beside him as her red hair whipped wildly in the wind cutting across the boat's prow, occasionally blocking his vision. Up ahead, the familiar rocky shoreline of the Seniors' island loomed larger, along with an imposing concrete wall wreathed in shadows and framed by the deep blue of the evening sky. According to Wade, this mission would be by-the-numbers. Nothing new at all.

Except it was the first time Ron remembered his teammate chatting more than he did.

"What a pretty island!" said the syntho-Kim. Ron nodded absently, his concentration focused on finding a place to pull the boat up without crashing violently into the jagged beach front. She pointed ahead, and a blast of wind sent red hair flying into his face again. "Why do the Seniors live here?" she asked. "It doesn't look like the lair Drakken had before you and Kim blew it up."

"Just a different style, I guess," said Ron. "All the supervillains like to have their own style."

"Shego likes to go to places like this when she's on vacation. She goes on vacation a lot."

"That's nice."

After finding a relatively smooth landing spot on the beach, Ron powered down the motor and secured the boat before the two of them made their way stealthily towards the concrete wall that surrounded the villa itself. There were no guards that Ron could see; no search lights either, even though it was well into evening. When it came to security, the Seniors weren't as tough as someone like Dementor. The best weapons in their arsenal were the Spinning Tops of Doom, which had been Ron's idea in the first place. Sometimes he wondered how _he'd_ do in the supervillain business. Of course, it was only an idle thought. Unlike Kim, he wouldn't actually consider trying it out except on the rare occasion that he got hit by personality reversing beams and whatnot.

"When you and Kim do missions together, are you usually in charge?"

"No," said Ron, shaking his head as he pulled a grappling gun from his pocket. "Kim's the one in charge."

"Why is that?"

"I dunno. She likes to be in charge. And she actually knows how to fight and stuff, and not blow things up when she doesn't mean to."

Ron wasn't on great terms with his ex-girlfriend, but he could give credit where credit was due.

"Why does she like going on these missions?"

"I guess she likes to help people. And beat up on the bad guys. Kim's all about the public service."

"Then why is she with Shego?"

"Look," said Ron, feeling a little exasperated, "could you ixnay on the alkingtay for a little bit? We gotta infiltrate the lair, which means keeping quiet!"

"Oh. Sorry!"

The synthodrone grew silent and stood patiently. Ron waited a moment, expecting her to grab a grappling gun from her cargo pants and shoot the hook over the wall, until he remembered: he was already packing his own gun, which Wade had provided the other day. This was _definitely_ weird. Being in charge was not something he was used to. It took him another moment to gather his thoughts and realize the next step was to grab the syntho-Kim and shoot his own hook over the wall while she held on.

As he pulled her closer, he felt a strange rippling flash of movement against him, as if she was tensing up, preparing to strike. Maybe she hadn't expected him to touch her. He waited, half expecting her to hit him. After another moment, however, she seemed to realize what they were doing and loosened up a little. Maybe the synthodrone wasn't used to being touched. Although, now that he thought about it, that didn't make sense. She was pretty much built for being touched all the...

Ron shook his head to clear away the creepy thoughts. Maybe if it was any other two ladies, but with Kim and Shego, it just wasn't quite the same. "Okay, ready?" he asked.

"Ready!"

The two of them went zipping up the side of the wall after his hook found purchase over the top. Without Kim around to lead the way, Ron felt even more awkward than usual; he nearly fell backwards off the wall again, teetering for balance until the syntho-Kim caught him by the hand and pulled him in. She seemed to be having no trouble with any of this. The two of them rappelled down the other side, landing with a soft thump in the grass courtyard between the wall and the Seniors' home. A few lights were on, but the place didn't seem too active.

Ron tiptoed towards the building, skirting around the pool and the oversized light bulb set up to keep Junior an unhealthy beige hue. As if the sun wasn't enough. People always dissed Ron for being pale, but that guy was gonna have skin cancer in about five years. Once he reached a secluded corner of the house, his synthodrone partner following behind, he was about to fire his grappling gun up to the roof again when he noticed a metal ladder attached to the wall nearby. How convenient. He and the syntho-Kim took the ladder and made their way up.

On the roof, Ron crept up to a skylight and stared down into the room below. It was dark below. He couldn't see much inside, but it didn't seem like a main room, and it wasn't too big. It would be a good place to break in.

"Why are we using the roof?" asked the syntho-Kim. "Why not take the front door?"

"Er, that's just not how it works. You gotta be sneaky about it and come in through an air vent or something like that. Air vents are what Kim likes to use most – that's how we usually break in."

"Then wouldn't it be easier to take them by surprise by actually using the front door? If you always use the air vents, they'd never expect the front door."

Clearly, the synthodrone wasn't getting it. Ron was about to try to explain it to her again, slower this time, when he began to think about her point more seriously. Maybe she was right. Did supervillains ever expect their teen nemeses to walk right into the front door? It wasn't like he and Kim ever really managed to sneak through a lair without getting caught, anyway. At this point, Ron sort of accepted it as a given.

"Just follow me," he finally said, not wanting to get a headache from thinking too much about strategy.

Ron broke the lock on the skylight, opened it up, and used the grappling hook to lower the two of them inside. Once they were in the room, it took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the darkness before he began to make out shelves of books lining the walls. Some kind of library, or a private study. The dim outline of a door occupied a break in the shelves, and Ron crept forward with his partner in tow. He managed to accidentally knock several books out of their shelves before he reached the door, sending loud thumps cutting through the darkness. He opened the door and poked his head outside to find a short hallway, also dark and unlit - but the coast seemed to be clear.

"Come on," Ron whispered.

His footsteps squeaked loudly on the floor as the two of them crept through the dark hallway. Ron had always been clumsy compared to Kim, but with this new Kim by his side, somehow the contrast seemed even more clear. It was almost like the synthetic Kim didn't make any noise at all – and without even having to adopt a proper ninja posture, like he did! He hadn't seen his new teammate in a fight yet, but he couldn't help wondering if the real Kim would feel jealous about her artificial counterpart's abilities. Ron was used to his best friend outshining him, but what happened if you got bested by _yourself_?

Turning another corner led to a set of thick metal doors, and Ron went through without hesitation, lost in thought over just how freaky a synthetic version of yourself could be. He knew Kim was freaked already, but he couldn't help wondering if meeting a syntho-Ron might be kind of cool. It'd probably be fun to talk to himself. And they could have contests - which one of them would win in a Naco-eating contest, for instance? Speaking of Naco binge eating, could synthodrones even barf? It was a fascinating question.

"Hey, Ron?"

Ron looked back at his teammate, who had stopped abruptly after passing through the door.

"What is it, syntho-Kim?"

"Could you just call me Kim?"

Not a question Ron had been expecting. Her request was a little awkweird, but then again, he had no idea how often he'd be working with the synthetic Kim in the future. Maybe it would be good to humor her. This was an experiment, after all, something he and Wade wanted to do just to see how it worked – just in case the real Kim was really done with missions. In case she really _was_ turning to the dark side. Ron still found it almost impossible to believe that, but...

"Wait," he said. "what did you stop me for?"

"Oh, I was just going to say that this room reminded me of the trap rooms Drakken likes in his lairs."

Ron looked around the new room, finally paying attention to his surroundings. 'Trap rooms?" he asked. His stomach dropped as he realized his partner was right.

He _totally_ needed to pay more attention on missions.

An ominous rumbling began to come closer, like it was vibrating out of the walls; Ron was about to grab syntho-Kim and run back through the door they had just exited, but just as he took a step back, the door slammed shut with a whoosh of air. The lights in the room flipped on with a sharp metallic click, and Ron froze in place as his surroundings were bathed in harsh light.

"Ooh," said the syntho-Kim. "Look at those tops! They're big!"

She was right. Those were some _big_ tops.

They came crashing into the room out of several hidden bay doors that opened in the walls around them, churning a path of broken debris in their wake as they approached. Ron got ready to leap out of the way. Hopefully syntho-Kim or Kim – whatever she wanted to be called - would follow his lead. He dodged the first top easily enough, but a piece of loose plaster tripped him up and almost sent him flying headfirst into another one. Fortunately, he felt a firm hand grab him by the arm and pull him back just as the top went spinning past, inches from his face.

"That was close!" said syntho-Kim.

"Yeah, thanks for the save."

"What do we do?"

"Find a way out!"

Ron dodged another passing top and darted towards the closed door they had used to get in. There was an access panel on the side, but none of the buttons seemed to respond when he pressed them; pressing every button available was usually a good strategy in any dangerous supervillain lair situation, but in this case, it didn't look like he'd have any luck. He tried to pry open the door itself, but it was useless. The sound of angry spinning tops thundered through the chamber behind him.

Giving up on the door, Ron turned around to see his synthetic partner dodging and weaving effortlessly through the tops as she traveled along the walls, probably checking for hidden entrances. She was fast, no doubt about it. And she had some moves, too. Bortel must have upgraded Drakken's synthodrone technology, Ron thought. The usual synthodrones he and Kim used to fight were not all that impressive. Even Eric, a step up from their usual synthodrone henchmen, hadn't been _this_ acrobatic. Syntho-Kim might give the real Kim a run for her money.

Admiring the synthodrone's moves was probably not the best activity to be doing in the midst of an incredibly dangerous spinning top sitch, and Ron was just about to learn that fact when the top careening towards him began to tilt sluggishly to the side, slowing and then grinding to a halt. The other tops soon followed; syntho-Kim stood and watched curiously as they all lurched and then toppled, one by one.

The room grew silent.

Ron walked over to his teammate, stepping over furrows and cracks criss-crossing the floor. A number of the walls were also dented, looking dangerously crumbly at various points that had taken the brunt of the tops' blows. Spinning Tops of Doom really seemed like more of a hypothetical trap than one with actual uses – Ron didn't even want to _think_ about the cost of renovations every time somebody broke into the Seniors' lair and set the things off. But he supposed that was one of the perks of being rich. Señor Senior Senior could just rebuild the whole place whenever they wanted.

"Why did they stop?" asked syntho-Kim.

As if in answer to her question, a slit appeared in the wall across from them, opening up into a wide door that had been hidden from sight. The two Seniors stepped through. Señor Senior Senior's expression was its usual mixture of hospitality and deviousness, while Señor Senior Junior looked utterly uninterested, as always. Senior tapped his cane on the floor and nodded curtly in greeting. "My teen nemeses," he said. "So nice of you to stop by."

"We're here for the blue diamond underpants you stole from Philippe's Bullion's private collection!"

Señor Senior Senior looked taken aback by Ron's accusation, but after another moment of consideration, apparently decided there was no point in hiding anything. He and Ron both knew full well why Ron was there. "Is that right?" he said. "You will have to find it first."

"Come on, dude, let's just make it easy."

"It is not as if my associate needed diamond underpants in the first place," said Senior. "Tell me, Ron Stoppable, do those sound like comfortable underpants to you? When I saw them in Philippe's drawing room, I knew he did not need them. He is a very rich man – he can afford something more comfortable, I am sure. Let us be reasonable - can you imagine the chafing?"

"Father," said Junior, looking miffed, "I thought we went to Philippe Bullion's party because we wanted to be let back into the Billionaire's Club?"

"That is what we told him, my son. But I simply wanted to steal from him."

Junior crossed his arms with a faint _hmph!_ of irritation. Ron felt a little sorry for the guy; not only did both of them have the cowlick problem in common, but Junior didn't strike him as all that bad, really. He seemed to get dragged unwittingly into his father's schemes. Ron was glad his own father didn't force him to go on actuarial trips all the time.

Senior gave him a brief nod, tilting his head in Ron's direction, and Ron saw his Junior's beefy arm muscles tense as he prepared to attack. He braced himself, but just as Junior took his first step, syntho-Kim burst forward and knocked him to the ground in a single kick. She was on top of Junior before he could move, wrapping an arm around him to restrain him.

"What do I do now?" she asked Ron.

Ron stammered for a moment, a little surprised at how quickly Junior had been defeated. Not that he had any chance against the real Kim, either. But it just seemed _fast_. Something about the way the synthodrone was holding him seemed strange, too. Her arm began to snake around Junior's neck, and Ron felt a nervous chill run down his spine. He hadn't gone into great detail with her – her, it, whatever - about how he and Kim handled their missions.

Maybe the synthodrone thought... but there was no way...

"Uh, we let him go," he said quickly.

"Let him go? Why?"

"Well, we just – I mean, Global Justice will take care of stuff."

The syntho-Kim nodded and stepped up, letting Junior rise to his feet and dust himself off. Senior looked strangely at the two of them before turning to Ron with a raised eyebrow. "What is going on?" he asked. "Why are you speaking to your girlfriend so strangely? Is she affected by some kind of memory loss?"

Ron laughed. "Oh, no. That's not the real Kim. That's a synthodrone copy."

"What?" Senior gave the synthetic Kim a closer look, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "How peculiar!"

"Father," said Junior impatiently, "Ron Stoppable is not going out with Kim Possible anymore, anyway. Do you not keep up with supervillain culture? I thought it was your hobby. It is all the news in the supervillain world."

"I was not aware of this. I am very sorry, Ron Stoppable. Where did you hear this, my son?"

"I read it in a magazine!"

"The sting of lost love is always greater with youth," said Senior.

"Yes, what father said."

Ron nodded helplessly, at a loss for words, as the two Seniors looked at him sympathetically. Somehow this mission was going in an increasingly uncomfortable direction. He almost wished the Spinning Tops of Doom were still spinning around – that kind of thing was more dangerous to navigate, but also simpler, in a way.

"Perhaps the two of you should stay for dinner," suggested Señor Senior Senior.

"Um, we're kind of here to take back what you stole from-"

"That would be nice!" chirped syntho-Kim.

"I am pleased, synthetic Kim copy."

"You can call me Kim!"

"Would that not be confusing, to have the same name as the real Kim Possible?"

The synthodrone considered the point for a moment.

"Call me Kimberly Anne," she finally said.

Ron wondered why she had chosen the name. Close to her human model, but enough to be different? Technically, that _was_ Kim's actual name – she just liked to be called Kim instead.

"Very well," said Senior. "Please, join us in the dining room. It is late, but the two of you must have spent a lot of time getting here. You must have some food. I will wake up our cook!"

Senior motioned for his son and guests to follow him as he retreated into his lair. Ron hesitated for a moment, but decided he _was_ pretty hungry. Maybe Senior was trying to lure him into another trap - or maybe his foe was actually interested in hearing more about the synthodrone replacement of Kim Possible. It was probably just a case of supervillain hospitality, though. He wouldn't be surprised if Senior just wanted a leisurely late evening meal before getting back to fighting. And after the way the synthodrone dispatched his son so quickly, maybe Senior knew he'd have to give up the diamond underpants anyway. Some of the things rich people bought, Ron would never understand.

The four of them made their way into the villa as Ron admired his surroundings. Marble busts, mirrors in exquisite frames, luxurious carpeting. In front of him, his partner was also looking around with an inquisitive look. Kimberly Anne, she had said. That was what the synthodrone wanted to call itself. Ron liked the name, but it would take a little getting used to.

"So, Ron Stoppable," said Junior as the two of them arrived in the living room, "Now that you have this robo-Kim with you, and you are no longer in the relationship with the real Kim, does this mean that she is available? And, if you do not mind me asking, is she still the Blue Fox?"

Ron groaned. He was hungry, but there was no way _this_ would be worth it.

XX

Another room, another bumbling batch of hapless henchmen.

"Kimmie, behind you!"

Shego's warning came just in time. Kim whirled around with a roundhouse kick and sent the approaching henchman flying back into a wall with a loud, sickening smack. Shego herself was fending off another two, while Drakken was rummaging through a few storage cabinets in the corner of the room. Kim wondered what he was looking for, as they had already gotten what they had infiltrated Dementor's lair for. She raced over to give Shego a hand, although it didn't look like she needed it. One of the henchmen was getting pummeled like a punching bag, while the other hung back, hesitant about joining the punishment. Kim tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hello," the man said, turning around in confusion.

"Hi!"

The man realized he was still in the middle of a fight and rushed at Kim. She took a step back, grabbed him by the arm, and sent him sailing behind her just in time to hit the first man she had dispatched as he was getting up again. The three henchmen looked like they were down for the count, but just as Kim was about to take a breather, a side door slid open as two more henchmen came hurtling into the room. Apparently they had been alerted by the sound of the fighting, as the alarms hadn't gone off yet, which surprised Kim.

"Hey Drakken, why-"

Kim was interrupted by the sound of alarms going off. She had totally jinxed herself on that one.

"What was that, Kim Possible?"

One of the two henchmen came at Kim before she could respond, beefy fists flying with no apparent attempt to aim. Dementor's henchmen _were_ a step up from the ones Drakken usually used, but even these were no contest for her. Maybe supervillains spent so much of their budget on ridiculously unnecessary lair décor that they barely had anything left for employee training. It would explain a lot.

The other henchman, who had gone after Shego, wavered unsteadily after taking a few hard punches from their opponent. A small shove from Shego sent him toppling down to the ground. The two henchmen who had arrived as backup were now sprawled, dazed or unconscious, along with the three they had encountered when they first entered the room. Drakken, who was still holding their prize, took a step forward now that the battle was over.

"What were you trying to say?" he asked Kim.

"I was wondering what you were looking for in those storage cabinets, since we already have the Energy Regulator."

"Oh, nothing much. I just wanted to see what kinds of knick-knacks Dementor might have laying around. There wasn't even anything in them – I think he just put the the cabinets there for show!"

"Whatever. We gotta get out of here before-"

"THIEVES!"

The three of them turned to see Dementor standing in the doorway, pointing a finger at them which shook in fury.

"Don't pretend you have the moral high ground!" said Drakken defensively.

"I am not de one who is doing de STEALING of an invention dat I did NOT invent!"

"Yeah," said Kim, "but you just stole it for yourself in the first place. Pot, meet kettle."

"I did NOT steal it," said Dementor. "I must admit, it vas invented by some of mine smarter henchmen after dey borrowed some blueprints from de Unnecessary Vortex Induction Labs, but nevertheless, it is MINE! Dementor does not need to take shortcuts in de business of evil, little girl!"

Kim rolled her eyes. Clearly, Dementor was in denial. Although it did sound like maybe it wasn't quite as clear-cut as Drakken had made it out to be, seeing as he had stolen blueprints but not an actual device. But then, she would expect Drakken to fudge a few details. "Either way," she said, "Finders keepers, Dementor. We're taking it with us."

"Vat is this? Are you working for supervillains now, Kim Possible?"

"No!"

"Den vy are you fighting mine henchmen with them?"

"Well, it's complicated, but it's not like I'm some kind of supervillain, I've just been-"

"She's having a quarter-life crisis," offered Shego, not very helpfully.

"Perhaps a fifth-life crisis," added Drakken. "On average, women live to be older than men, you know."

"Shut it, Doctor D."

"I have INDEED heard of de quarter-life crisis! But I do not understand – vy are you associating with Shego? I was under de impression dat the two of you vere mortal enemies?"

Kim shrugged. "She's not so bad when you get to know her."

She was being honest – she had definitely warmed up to Shego lately, and not just in the physical way. The woman could be downright sociable when she wasn't so defensive and flippant about everything, and the two of them had enjoyed some fun times together. She only wished Shego could open up more. But that was neither here nor there. Right now, she needed to deal with Dementor holding them up, which was probably just a stalling attempt until more of his henchmen arrived.

"Vait a minute," said Dementor. "I heard through de grapevine dat you und the buffoon, what is his name – Drakken, help me out here."

"No idea."

Kim sighed. "His name is Ron Stoppable."

"Yes, I heard dat you und de Ron Stoppable were no longer dating. Which is not surprising - I must say, I cannot believe dat you even thought about going out with him in de first place. But I haf been hearing some other strange things since then. I did not believe it vas true, but now – de way you two – I am vondering-"

Dementor trailed off as his head snapped back and forth between Kim and Shego. He had definitely picked up on _something_ between them, although Kim was surprised at his perceptiveness. She was also surprised that there seemed to be some kind of supervillain grapevine, through which – apparently – just about _any_ news could travel. She couldn't decide if she was embarrassed or amused by the man's reaction.

Either way, talking about her embryonic relationship with Shego wasn't really why she had tagged along for the trip to Dementor's lair. It was more about getting the chance to exercise her mission muscles, stop Dementor from using that energy ray or whatever the hell it was to create a doomsday weapon, and get in closer with Drakken and Shego while she was doing it.

"Sorry to bail," said Shego, "but we've got places to be."

Drakken took his partner's cue to head to the back of the room with his stolen device tucked firmly under an arm, making his way to the stairway that led up to the roof. Kim and her villain allies were in a room near the top of one of the towers which jutted up from Dementor's classical-themed lair, having fought their way up from a laboratory where they found the device, and Shego's hovercraft would be waiting for them on the roof. Even if it wasn't, Shego had shown Kim some cool remote control capabilities for the thing ever since they had been spending so much time together.

"Kim Possible," said Dementor as he followed them, apparently giving up on the hope he could take on both Kim and Shego alone without any backup, "Vatever dey are paying you, I can DOUBLE it!"

"Sorry, Dementor, they're not paying me anything."

"Vat about de women! You think Shego is de bomb, but I can get you many women! I know one with greener skin, it is de truth, and she vill not inevitably destroy you like Shego vill!"

"_Ugh!_"

The stairway rose up and out of the room until it opened onto a small, circular roof on top of the tower. A view of the Bavarian countryside lay spread beneath them, stunning even in the evening moonlight, but there wasn't much time for sightseeing. The hovercraft was waiting for them on the roof, where they had parked it before rappelling down and entering Dementor's lair through a side window. The three of them piled in, taking off as Dementor clambered out behind them and shook his fist. Kim watched him as they sailed off into the night sky. His helmeted figure was illuminated by a few lights on the tower's rooftop. He grew smaller and smaller, receding into the distance.

Drakken breathed a sigh of relief. "Good job, you two."

"Yeah, that was fun," said Shego. "How about that one guy who didn't know which one of us to run from first?"

Kim laughed. "That was great. I'll admit, it's different going on missions with you guys than it was with Ron."

She felt a pang of guilt even as she said it – but then, she hadn't said it was _better_, had she? Just different. Partly because she and Shego both played similar roles when it came to fighting, with Drakken being more like Ron, and partly because fighting Dementor was weird with two of her former archenemies on her side. _Maybe_ former archenemies, she reminded herself. She couldn't deny her feelings towards Shego had changed, but it wasn't like she had any kind of special relationship with Drakken. She _was_ here to keep an eye on him on behalf of Global Justice, after all.

"So what is that thing called, again?" she asked.

Drakken cradled the device in his lap like a beloved baby as they tore through the night sky. "I believe Dementor called it the Pan-Dimensional Dark Energy Regulator," he said. "But that's just for show. It's a Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer that he wants to pretend he improved."

"Hmm. And you know I'm gonna have to destroy it, right?"

Drakken laughed incredulously. "Destroy something as beautiful as this? Why would you want to do that? There are so many uses for it, so many things I could plug it into, like the Transliterator-"

After noticing the look on Kim's face, Drakken cut off abruptly. Kim knew he wanted the Vortex Inducer for his own ends, as she doubted the man hated Dementor enough to waste time attacking his lair just for kicks, but she was a little annoyed to hear the Transliterator brought up again. Judging by her expression, Shego seemed to share Kim's sentiments.

"Didn't I destroy that thing?" asked Kim.

"It was just an idea. Besides, if I rebuilt it, it wouldn't even be fatal!"

"What would it do, then?" asked Shego.

"I'm keeping my options open," said Drakken. "Maybe cause minor skin irritation. Something like that."

Kim glared.

"I said minor!"

Kim was irked, but it wasn't like she had any reason to expect Drakken would do anything else. She really needed to do a little more groundwork on trying to convince him to try an alternative line of work – Drakken's genius could be so useful if it was redirected into something that benefited humanity, instead of feeding his own uncontrollable narcissism and desire for power.

But as for Shego, Kim was confident in her progress. Every time the two of them were alone, the subject seemed to come up in one form or another. She knew Shego was trying to convert her to a life of crime and villainy, just as she was trying to bring Shego back to her old superhero ways. Both of them knew what was going on by now, even if their affections were genuine. Both of them had their ulterior motives. They didn't admit it out loud. Sometimes it seemed like they were just talking past each other – but still, Kim had confidence. If Shego saw something in her, felt something towards her, then it meant the woman wasn't really committed to this villainy thing. It meant she could change.

And just talking was progress, really. She knew Shego had to been listening to _some_ of the things she was saying.

"Perhaps, sooner or later, I could just _show_ you some of my ideas," suggested Drakken. "The Transliterator Ray wouldn't be so bad, and honestly, who do you want ruling the world? Myself, or the politicians in charge right now? Tell me, Kim Possible, do you really think I would be _that_ much worse?"

Kim was about to scoff, but as she thought about it, maybe Drakken had a point. Just the _tiniest_ inkling of a point.

And the man was crazy, so not even an inkling, really. Kim had only hesitated because everyone knew politicians were pretty stupid. But Drakken would be a disaster, of course. And even Shego – despite Kim's changing attitude towards her former foe – Shego would make a mess of things. Maybe Shego was gorgeous, maddeningly fascinating and mysterious, but she was also selfish. She flouted the rules, acted like the law didn't apply to her. With someone like that in charge, nothing good could happen. It would be fascism. Or anarchy, if Shego took a more laid back approach, but that ultimately led to fascism anyway, didn't it?

No, Drakken and Shego were definitely not be the kind of people you wanted to rule the world. They were totally different from the kind of people who ran things through a democratic process. People who got elected by the people.

Or were they?

Before Kim could answer Drakken's question, their ride in the hovercraft was interrupted by the sound of a familiar ring. She listened to the _beep-beep-_be_-beep_ coming from her pocket with a sudden burst of dread. She had been disabling the Kimmunicator lately, sometimes leaving it at home or in Shego's lair, although sometimes she kept it with her just in case there was a serious emergency, in which case she knew Wade could just hack it and send a signal regardless of whether it was on or off.

But it was beeping now, which meant there could be an emergency. Or she might have checked it earlier and forgotten to turn it off again before her mission with Drakken and Shego. While she felt guilty about ignoring her calls, she didn't want to deal with Wade moralizing or making passive-aggressive comments about the time she was spending with Shego. He had done it before, and she was tired of dealing with that from Wade. Or from Ron. Or from anyone else. She knew he probably needed her for missions, but Global Justice could take care of those, couldn't they? Or Ron, if he cared about it half as much as she did. Besides, she was doing something for Global Justice now - how much could they expect of her? She wasn't superwoman.

"What's that?" asked Drakken.

Kim decided to pull the Kimmunicator from her pocket and see who it was without fully engaging the screen. Fortunately, it wasn't Wade or Ron – the message on the screen was coded, but she knew it was from Global Justice. They had a system for sending messages to her, since she was undercover and they didn't want to raise any suspicions from Drakken and Shego.

Probably Dr. Director wanting updates on her undercover mission. Fortunately, Kim couldn't help her, as she was a few inches away from both Drakken or Shego. She didn't really want to talk to Global Justice, anyway. She returned the Kimmunicator to her pocket, flashing her partners in crime a brief grin as Drakken piloted the hovercraft to a nearby town. "It was nobody," she said, a speckle of houselights looming up in the darkness. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"Karaoke," said Drakken.

"Ugh, Doctor D, no way!"

"In celebration of our successful heist! With the help of Kim Possible here, of course."

Kim couldn't help laughing at the utterly forlorn expression Shego was wearing. A night of karaoke couldn't be that bad, could it? She didn't plan on doing any herself, but it might be interesting to see how Drakken did. And she'd definitely prod Shego into doing a few songs, especially if the woman expected any kind of bedtime fun later. Shego needed to pay her dues for that.

The three of them were in a good mood; Kim decided that, for now, she'd ignore Drakken's transparent attempts to sell her on the idea of his future supervillain ideas. She could always get rid of the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer later, or whatever it was that Dementor had been calling it. Or maybe she'd just steal it from Drakken and sneak it to Global Justice, as it might be a tricky thing to destroy, seeing as the last one had almost started a black hole the size of Nevada. And as for her little call, well, if GJ had been calling about a mission, they could ask Ron and Wade.

Just for tonight, Kim could be one of the villains. Not that karaoke seemed very villainous, unless the singing was really, really bad. But she supposed even villains needed a little time off.

XX

* * *

_Notes - There you go, enjoy, and let me know what you thought!_

_It's up a little late tonight because I've been getting caught up in something else I'm writing. I have a story called "Pater Unfamiliar" (centered on Drakken and his family) that I left off a while ago after losing motivation for some reason, but I've been picking it up again. I will probably start updating it again next week - I'll mention it when I do in case anyone is interested. And I've got another story I'm writing which I may start posting in a week or two. Neither will interfere much with posting this story, though, so don't worry._


	13. Misdirection

**Misdirection**

XX

"And you didn't have any way to track the prototype?"

"I'm afraid not."

Ron shook his head in disappointment at Jack Hench's response. He and Kimberly Anne sat beside each other in comfortable leather chairs in front of Hench's desk. They had just concluded their meeting, and Ron had no ideas left on how to stall more than they already had.

"Is that all, Mr. Stoppable?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Thanks for letting us check the roof camera security tapes. We haven't found them yet, but I'm sure we will soon, and we'll have your Tunneler back in no time."

"I appreciate you coming by to help out," said Hench, rising from his desk and extending a hand. Ron shook it; the man had a powerful grip. He winced as the handshake finished and Hench gestured towards the door. "Please keep us informed if you have any more updates."

"Will do!"

Kimberly Anne joined Ron as the two of them left the office and walked down the hallway that led to the reception area. Ron had asked for a meeting with Jack Hench to check some security footage of the day when Drakken and Shego had stolen the Tunneler for the Utilization of Subcutaneous – well, whatever it was Drakken had stolen that day – in order to try and see if they could determine where they had been headed when they escaped. But that, of course, was just a cover. Ron had really set up the meeting on behalf of Hench's secretary, who he now saw waiting expectantly out at the receptionist's desk.

"Hello," said Miss Harcourt. "The meeting's over?"

"Yep."

"Can we – can we talk in private?"

Miss Harcourt lowered her voice, and Ron noticed a security camera in the corner of the room which she seemed to be avoiding by angling her head a certain way. He got the impression she thought her boss was watching them. "I dunno if I remember how to get out of here," said Ron. "Could you show us where the elevators are?"

"Of course."

The three of them left the reception area and took another hallway to the elevators. Jack Hench's secretary had asked Ron to have a meeting with him in order to see what was wrong with him – according to her, ever since he had come back after taking some time off work for sickness, something about him had seemed strange. As if he wasn't quite the Jack Hench she had gotten to know on the job. Ron didn't know what to make of it, and had been about to dismiss it as not worth the time to investigate until he talked to Wade about it – and his friend seemed to think there might be something there.

"Well?" asked Miss Harcourt as they reached the elevators. "What did you think?"

"He _did_ seem weird," said Ron. "What did you think, Kim?"

For the purposes of the meeting, he had been pretending that his synthodrone partner was the real Kim. Miss Harcourt didn't really know the difference, and he didn't want Jack Hench knowing he had a synthodrone with him.

"I think he seemed alright," said Kimberly Anne.

"You're sure?" asked Miss Harcourt. "He's just been acting so strange lately – like he's been brainwashed or something! I know the kind of clients we deal with, so I was a little worried. I thought maybe you and Kim would know."

Ron looked at his synthodrone partner again, but she shook her head, reiterating her opinion that nothing was wrong. He shrugged nonchalantly. "We'll let you know if we figure anything out," he told Miss Harcourt. "I can talk to my tech friend, Wade, about it."

"It could just be that he's still a little sick," offered Kimberly Anne.

The secretary looked doubtful.

"We'll be in touch," said Ron.

"Alright, then. Have a good afternoon."

"You too!"

Ron and his partner took the elevator and made their way downstairs and out of the building. He walked across the parking lot, glancing back at the building's facade. The bright sun and blue sky painted a reflective picture on the glass windows. Up there, somewhere on an upper floor of Hench Co, was Jack Hench's office. He got a creepy feeling, like maybe Hench was watching them from his window. The two of them reached his scooter and hopped on. They had just begun driving away when his Communicator beeped. It was Wade.

"Find anything?" the boy asked.

"Kim - Kimberly Anne says she doesn't think anything's wrong."

"Nope!" said Kimberly Anne.

"Weird. You didn't pick up on any synthodrone traits?"

"No, and I'd be able to tell."

"Well, maybe it was a false alarm. I was worried maybe he was a synthodrone – when I heard what the secretary was saying, something about it just seemed suspicious."

"You did get Bortel to stop doing that whole mail order synthodrone thing, didn't you? And why would he replace Hench with a fake, anyway? It's not like the guy's a supervillain."

"Maybe not," said Wade. "He's not too far away from that, though. And it was really Global Justice that handled most of the process of shutting down Bortel's synthodrone operation."

"Well, I have good news, then."

"What's that?"

"I'm meeting with GJ in just a minute. They wanted to talk to me, for some reason."

"No kidding? Great timing, then. You can ask them about it."

"Will do."

Ron closed his connection on the Communicator and returned it to his pants pocket, swerving a little on the scooter and almost sending himself and his passenger hurtling into some shrubbery on the side of the road. It wasn't even afternoon yet, but he had been working a full schedule since morning. Today was a busy day, especially for a Sunday. Investigating things with Hench, a meeting with GJ – Ron was beginning to feel almost competent. Even with Kim missing in action, he could get things done. He had Wade, after all. Wade and his synthetic sidekick.

It was strange, but he and Kimberly Anne seemed to make a pretty good team together. They had taken care of the Seniors together, and thanks to her synthodrone senses, they had determined there was nothing artificial about Bortel. Although Ron could have sworn the man was acting kind of weird. Hopefully Kimberly Anne wasn't mistaken. Maybe his visit to Global Justice would help clear things up.

XX

After Ron suppressed the urge to vomit, he straightened himself up and waited for the tube's door to open. Another visit to Global Justice. He didn't mind checking up with them, but there _had_ to be a better way of inviting him than leaving a vague message on his answering machine asking him to visit a certain street corner so they could then suck him down a system of tubes. Didn't they have a _regular_ elevator?

"Nice job handling the Seniors," said Dr. Director as they shook hands.

"No prob! They pretty much just gave up after we had dinner, actually. I think after I got through those spinning tops and told them to hand the diamond underpants back, they knew better than to fight back. And Kimberly Anne did alright, too."

"Kimberly Anne?"

"That's the name I've decided to give myself!" said Kimberly Anne. The synthodrone copy of Kim was tagging along with Ron for this particular visit to Global Justice.

"I see. The Seniors invited you two to dinner?"

Ron nodded, feeling a little queasy. "Poached sea bass and olives," he said. "They're so rich, I don't know why they don't just put a Bueno Nacho on their island. That's totally what I'd do. Bueno Nacho, day and night!"

It was Dr. Director's turn to look a little queasy.

"Does Kim like Bueno Nacho?" asked Kimberly Anne as she trailed along with Ron and Dr. Director.

"Yeah. We both do. We go – we went there all the time."

Ron noticed the synthodrone had been asking him a lot about Kim lately. She was probably just interested in the person she had been modeled after. He _did_ remember her mentioning something about wanting to be more like Kim when he first met her. Ever since he had decided to keep her at his house – for missions, of course, no funny business, the Ron Man wasn't that kind of guy – she had been curious about Kim. About Kim, about him, about missions. He got the feeling that she was trying to figure out not just who Kim Possible was, but why Shego had made her look and act like the girl. He decided self-identity had to be kind of a weird sitch for a robot clone to handle.

To be honest, Ron didn't think Kimberly Anne was that much like Kim in personality, anyway. It was hard to get past appearances, but she was way too chipper and upbeat; not that Kim wasn't a positive person herself, but she definitely had a spunky, sarcastic side that this synthodrone was missing. Still, Ron had been happy to help at first. He usually answered her questions. Sometimes he couldn't help wondering if he was being too trusting – maybe it was just the synthodrone's friendly behavior, but there was just something about her that seemed trustworthy. She didn't seem as deceptive as normal human beings.

"Have you made any progress with Kim Possible?" asked Dr. Director.

"What do you mean?"

"According to our tracking, she joined Drakken and Shego for an attack on Professor Dementor's lair, but we haven't been able to get in touch with her since then. It's probably just a matter of her not getting a good opportunity to get in touch with us, but we want to make sure she's carrying out her mission and not being swayed by Shego."

"The last time I talked to her," Ron said ruefully, "we ended up yelling at each other."

Dr. Director didn't look happy at the news. "You should keep trying."

Ron wondered how exactly they were tracking where Kim went with Drakken and Shego in the first place. Maybe Kim had helped them with some kind of tracking device – still, they sure seemed to do a lot of tracking. Sort of like how Wade always seemed to know where he was, although Ron doubted Wade was _literally_ tracking him. It wasn't like the boy had secretly placed some kind of chip in his body or something. Ron laughed at the thought; that would definitely be wrongsick.

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing. So is that why you asked me and Kimberly Anne over here? To talk about the mission?"

"I did want to check up," said Dr. Director. "But once we learned you were teaming up with the synthodrone – um, Kimberly Anne – we wanted to meet her. We'd like to run a few tests on her, if she doesn't mind. Drakken's synthodrone technology is quite interesting, and we'd like to get a little more detail about it. We can make sure she's running at top form in case the two of you end up going on any more missions together. It might be unavoidable if Kim switches sides on us. The real Kim, I mean."

It was obvious from the tone of her voice that Dr. Director was joking about Kim – the real Kim – but her chuckle seemed to trail off nervously. Ron gulped. Global Justice definitely seemed like it was testing Kim Possible with this whole covert mission, dangling Shego in front of her like bait. If Kim succeeded in bringing Shego back to her old heroic ways, they might end up with another powerful ally on their side, or even a top agent. And if Kim decided the life of a supervillain was for her, well - Global Justice was probably keeping a close eye out for that possibility.

Ron hated the idea of Kim taking on this infiltration mission for personal reasons. He knew she was exploring whatever kind of freak fest she had going on with Shego. But, even beyond that, he just worried about her. She had been his best friend since pre-K, after all. It was hard to even imagine that they might not be best friends anymore, but wherever they stood, the fact was that he still cared about her. He didn't want to see her thrown in prison by GJ, drawn into a life of teen delinquency, turned into a hardened criminal by the likes of Shego. Covered in tattoos, spitting chewing tobacco onto a prison yard's blacktop as she fought off butch inmates rushing at her with shivs. It was too much to even think about.

"So you don't mind if we run a few tests?"

Dr. Director's question pulled Ron from his dark daydream. "On Kimberly Anne? You'd have to ask her."

Dr. Director turned to the synthodrone for approval. Somehow, the woman seemed to see something awkward about asking a synthodrone for approval.

"Sure!" she chirped. "Whatever you guys think is a good idea is fine with me."

As if on cue, a man and a woman dressed in white lab coats appeared from around a corner. As far as Ron could tell, they were some kind of GJ scientists. Dr. Director motioned for Kimberly Anne to join the scientists, and the three of them passed through a pair of sliding doors into another room; through the door's windows, Ron could see other white-clad scientists milling around stainless steel lab tables topped by vials, tangled collections of tubing, and other strange-looking pieces of lab equipment. Dr. Director led him off in another direction. The two of them entered the main control room, where Will Du stood up from a computer terminal and marched stiffly over to greet them.

"Hello, Agent Du."

"Ma'am," said Du, nodding curtly at Ron before turning back to his boss. "The synthodrone is here?"

"We're taking a look at her. Ronald, I didn't want to mention it while she was around, but we also wanted to make sure she wasn't a dangerous thing to have – er, person – we wanted to make sure she wouldn't be a dangerous addition to your missions."

"What do you mean?"

"She was made by Cyrus Bortel to be a companion to Shego," said Dr. Director. "We don't know anything about her programming, what kind of defense mechanisms she might have, or whether she has any ulterior motives about getting closer to you."

"She said she wants to be more like Kim," said Ron. "I sorta got the feeling she was wondering why she was made in Kim's image, and why Shego wanted her to be like that. She seems confused, to me."

"Still, we wanted to run a few tests and ask her some questions. Just to be safe."

Ron couldn't argue with that. At first, he had harbored a few suspicions about the synthodrone's unexpected arrival at his house the other day, even though he had a hard time thinking she was evil now that he had spent some time with her. But then, even if Ron was a smart guy, he wasn't always right. It was possible she _could_ be dangerous – she had been helpful during their mission to the Seniors' island, but from the way she had subdued Junior with no effort at all, it was obvious that Ron might be in trouble on the off chance that Kimberly Anne turned on him.

So, like Dr. Director said, it didn't hurt to be safe.

"Any updates on the Lorwardians, Agent Du?"

"No, Dr. Director."

Ron raised an eyebrow. "You guys thinking alien invasion?"

"We've been keeping an eye on it for a while," said Dr. Director. "Don't worry. Nothing out of the ordinary yet."

Ron wondered why Global Justice was even worrying about aliens in the fist place. Wasn't that NASA's job or something? Maybe GJ handled lots of threats beyond just supervillains. "Oh, by the way," he said, "there was something else I wanted to talk about."

"What's that?"

"This morning I had a meeting with Jack Hench, over at Hench Co. His secretary tried to call Kim, but she told her to talk to Wade instead. Apparently the secretary thought Hench was acting really weird after he got back from a couple days off for sick leave, like he was brainwashed or something – not himself. Wade thought it sounded sort of like maybe he had been replaced by a synthodrone. I guess he got the idea because of how Kimberly Anne's been around lately."

Dr. Director listened, her face impassive.

"So he thought there might be something going on that led back to Cyrus Bortel. But Kimberly Anne didn't think there was anything wrong with Jack Hench – what do you guys think?"

"She's probably right," said Dr. Director. "We made sure Bortel wasn't going to pursue any more synthodrone creation in the future. His secretary is probably just imagining things."

"I dunno, I thought he was acting pretty weird, too."

"Well, Ronald, that doesn't sound like much to go on. I'm sure there are more important things for you and Wade to be doing than worrying about whether or not something is wrong with Jack Hench. Global Justice can look into it, however. We'll pay Cyrus Bortel a visit soon."

"Cool. Thanks!"

Maybe Dr. Director was right – sometimes people just acted strange. Just because Hench seemed off didn't mean he was a synthodrone. Kim had gone _way_ beyond strange at this point, after all. He smiled, a little bored, as Dr. Director and Will Du went over a printout for a moment. The two of them gave him a strange look as they stood by the terminals, almost as if he wasn't welcome. Dr. Director's look was quick, almost imperceptible, but Will Du's look lingered. The dude always seemed to have a chip on his shoulder. Ron still remembered when he got tazed just for offering a few Pixie Scout cookies to him. Talk about ungrateful.

"So how long are the tests gonna take?" asked Ron.

"Not long. You don't have to stay here – we can send Kimberly Anne back to you once the tests are complete."

Ron thought about the offer. He _was_ a little hungry, but something about leaving the synthodrone alone at the GJ facility while he went off to Bueno Nacho seemed cruel. He was surprised how sympathetic he felt towards her. Ron supposed he was an open-minded guy. Synthetic people, squishy fleshy people – how different _were_ they in the end? He understood Rufus better than anybody else did, after all, and Rufus wasn't human at all.

"Do you mind if I stay here until she's ready to go?" he asked.

"Not at all. Agent Du and I do have some business to attend to, though."

"That's cool. I could go join Kimberly Anne while she's being tested."

Will Du glanced at Dr. Director, who shook her head.

"I think the tests need some privacy."

"Oh. It's all good."

"You know, Ronald," said Dr. Director, breaking into a smile, "we _do_ have a Global Justice break room in our facility. There's a Play Cube, too. You're welcome to take a look."

"What? That's awesome!"

"Agent Ullman, can you show him the way?"

An agent sitting at a terminal nearby threw up his hands in exasperation. "Aw, man! What the hell, am I like a babysitter or something?"

"Any more lip and I'll send you to the brig, Ullman."

"Sorry, ma'am." Ullman glared at Ron. "Follow me, kid."

The agent got up from his terminal and motioned for Ron to join him. They left the control room into a hallway as they walked in the direction of the break room. Ron was psyched to see what kind of games they had, and shocked that an organization which produced people like Will Du could even _have_ a break room, but he also couldn't help feeling a burst of curiosity about why it seemed like they couldn't talk with him around in the command center.

He glanced back into the command center for a moment, watching Dr. Director and Will Du as they surveyed a bank of monitors and talked in hushed tones about something. Unfortunately, the command center's doors closed automatically in front of him; Ron was left staring at blank gray metal. He turned at the sound of his chaperone clearing his throat gruffly. "I'm coming, I'm coming," he said. "Hey, you wanna play some games with me?"

Agent Ullman was silent for a moment, but then nodded reluctantly.

"Badical!"

Whatever they were talking about in the control room couldn't be _that_ interesting. He wished he could visit Kimberly Anne and see how the tests were going. For a moment, he forgot about what Dr. Director had said and took a step in the direction of the laboratory where the synthodrone had gone with the two scientists, but Ullman stepped in front of him and motioned for him to keep following instead.

"This way, Stoppable."

Sometimes Global Justice creeped Ron out a little bit. It was probably just bureaucracy. They had to be secret about everything, and everybody had to follow the rules. Definitely not Ron's idea of a good time – rules and regulations weren't the Ron Man's scene. But he had to work with them more often nowadays, now that everything with Kim was up in the air. Hopefully his best friend would wake up and smell the roses soon. He knew it would be hard to patch things up with her, but he was beginning to grow tired of the way they danced around each other and avoided any conversation. Maybe things couldn't go back to the way they were when it came to romance, but at least when it came to missions, he wished things could to go back to normal.

XX

Kim's math book stared up at her from the floor, opened at the end of the chapter. To its left was a sheet of paper on which the answers to all the problems for that chapter were written neatly down. To its right was a paper plate, on which a few scraps of sandwich crust still remained. Kim picked up a piece of crust and nibbled on it; lunch was long since past, and judging by the clock, she had finished her homework just in time.

She sat back against the side of her bed, legs crossed on the floor as she thought about going to Middleton Hospital. She almost expected her mother to yell up the stairs about how she needed to get a move on before she was late, but the house was silent. Pediatric Fun Squad had always been fun – visiting the kids in the hospital with Ron, spreading a little good cheer.

Today, however, she knew Ron wouldn't be coming along.

Not that she had invited him. But she was sure Ron knew the same thing she did – there would be no good cheer for any of those kids if the two of them were going together. Just frosty silence punctuated by the occasional bickering. It was her mother's hospital anyway, and Ron hadn't mentioned anything about the Fun Squad over the last week, so she was pretty sure she would be doing it alone. For the first time in years.

Kim sighed and closed her math book before getting up from her bedroom floor. The homework had taken a freakishly long time to finish. She had noticed her academic performance sliding a little lately. Not that she had to worry – school had never been a challenge to her – but things with Ron had definitely been weighing on her, and she was pretty sure she had ended up skipping school to be with Shego more often than she had ever skipped it for her usual missions. Mr. Barkin had definitely noticed it, at least, judging by the way he kept trying to corner her like some kind of wild animal and trap her in the painful snare of nonstop lecturing.

Sometimes she forgot she was even _on_ a mission anymore. She was supposed to be monitoring Shego and Drakken, trying to work on Shego's good side, but she knew that wasn't really her motivation anymore. _Shego_ was her motivation. That green skin, that smug smirk... it was so arousing, so maddening! Kim knew that beneath it all was a woman she still hadn't been allowed to meet. A person hidden away from her. She had only met the Shego that Shego wanted her to see.

And yet she kept coming back. She kept trying to find a crack in that armor.

She checked the time, decided she had dawdled long enough, and put Shego out of her mind for the moment as she left her room. "Hey, dad," she said as she came bounding down the stairs and past the kitchen, "I'm going out to that Pediatric Fun Squad thing at the hospital."

"Alright."

Kim came to a halt before she passed the entrance to the kitchen. She looked in at her father, who was sitting at the kitchen table and reading a newspaper. Sometimes it seemed like he did that all day long – how could there be _that_ much to read in a newspaper? She wasn't sure why she stopped at first, but then she realized: she was expecting him to say something else. Maybe something about coming back in time for dinner.

"Don't worry," she said with a smile, "I'm not going out with any boys."

James looked up from his newspaper.

"What about _girls?_"

It should have been a joke, but her father wasn't smiling. Kim knew exactly who he had in mind. She felt flustered, unable to respond; her parents had been cold to her lately, shutting her down whenever she tried to say something and bring things back to normal. They weren't cruel, but they weren't as friendly as they used to be. They didn't approve. They didn't understand what was going on between her and Shego. Not that she could totally blame them - she didn't always understand it herself, and she knew she hadn't been very open with them about it.

But, just like with Ron, it was hard to be open when people were judging her, when they had made it totally clear they were judging her. When she was judging _herself_, she had to admit. This thing with Shego, whatever it was? It was personal. And it was too complicated for other people to be useful to her. In the end, Kim knew she was the only one who could figure out her own feelings.

"I'm not going out with anyone, dad," she said tiredly. "Just to the hospital."

"That's fine."

"I'll be home in time for dinner."

Her father didn't respond. Kim watched him for a moment as he went back to his newspaper, and then left through the front door, hoping she could muster up enough of a good mood to give the kids at the hospital a little entertainment. Even if it was fake cheer. After all - whatever problems Kim had to deal with, being in bad health wasn't one of them, at least. She wasn't about to cheer up about it or anything, but it _did_ put things into perspective. Just a little.

XX

"How does it look, Haytham?"

Betty stood beside the chief scientist, engineer, and general technical expert of Global Justice's Middleton facility, Dr. Haytham. He was useful, no doubt about it. Ron and the Kim Possible clone had already left, although Ron had been reluctant to let himself be pried away from the break room, and now she was free to go over the test results with her chief scientist. Judging by the fact that the synthodrone hadn't gone haywire and killed everyone, things were looking up.

"It's fascinating technology," said Dr. Haytham. "Bortel is a genius."

"Drakken, not Bortel," Betty corrected. "Although maybe Bortel modified it, I don't know."

"Either way, it's marvelous. I wish we had more time to inspect it- maybe if we could do some more intrusive testing while it was temporarily disabled, for instance."

"I thought we figured out it can't be disabled anymore."

"Not through its own failsafe system," said Dr. Haytham. "It's definitely learning on its own. But we could interrupt its processes through other means - inject it with the equivalent of synthodrone anesthetic, for instance." Dr. Haytham laughed boisterously at his comment, although Betty didn't see what was so funny. Probably some kind of scientist joke. "We took a small tissue sample from the synthodrone - we told it that tissue extraction was a routine procedure. That should give us some interesting data. From what I can see, it looks like there is a common base of programming in each and every cell of material that comes from those synthodrones."

"And how did our modifications go?"

As he flipped through some papers, Dr. Haytham nodded vigorously. "Very well, very well. The information we had confiscated from Drakken's computer systems when we arrested him after the Li'l Diablo scheme proved useful. His synthodrone schematics were enough to allow us to insert our code. It looks like Bortel has updated it with his own tweaks, but there were no errors while we had the synthodrone hooked up to the scanning and insertion machine. We masked our code with some of its basic maintenance routines. I don't think it will notice the foreign programming. We should be able to issue remote commands that interface with its emotional-"

"Emotions?"

"Yes," said Dr. Haytham. "It seems to have developed a system that exhibits emotional responses to various stimuli. It's quite fascinating. Assuming our operation was successful, we should be able to direct it in different ways, using its emotional matrix to push it in the directions we want, without being so obvious that it picks up on what we're doing. Although I still think the wisest course of action would have been to wipe it clean and control it completely."

"Not unless you could retain its personality the way it is," said Dr. Director. "Otherwise, Ron Stoppable would notice. And anyway, I want to see how it evolves. A synthodrone that can learn – how often to you get to observe that kind of thing, Haytham? Where's your scientific curiosity?"

Dr. Haytham shrugged, looking a little defensive about Betty's jab.

If he was right, they had the synthodrone wrapped around their little finger - Betty hoped her chief scientist wasn't wrong. They hadn't been on top of things when it came to Eric, and _that_ synthodrone had been impressive enough to fool Kim Possible. She wondered why he never really revisited inventions that came so close to success. Maybe supervillains just got bored of doing the same thing. Although that didn't explain why they kept trying to take over the world.

She didn't know whether this new synthodrone was the same model as Eric, or something different - Drakken and Bortel had both had time to fiddle with the technology, after all, and Dr. Haytham seemed to think it had been updated - but this new synthodrone version of Kim seemed to be _sentient_. If it was learning fast enough, it might not appreciate the discovery that Global Justice was tampering with its inner processes. Worst case scenario, they'd have to neutralize it, and that might cause problems with Kim and Ron if the two teens were suddenly getting cold feet about destroying synthetic beings. Maybe Kim would understand. But Ron, at least, could be a problem. The boy definitely seemed to have some kind of fondness for the thing.

_Sentient synthodrones_, Betty thought. A little creepy.

"So you don't think it can be controlled by Drakken, Shego, or Bortel?" she asked.

"No, I don't think so. It's a free agent. At least it was until today."

Betty smirked. She and Dr. Haytham turned around as the laboratory door opened; Will Du strode through and joined them. "Dr. Director," he said, "we have a problem."

"What is it?"

"It's an update on Doctor Langford and his memory research, in the command center."

Will Du nodded towards the door and strode off as Betty followed. Once they reached the command center, she waited as her top agent accessed a terminal, feeling her patience wearing thin as Agent Du fumbled around on a keyboard, trying to bring up whatever he wanted to show her.

Just as she was about to push him aside and do it herself, a video feed flickered to life on the computer monitor. On the screen, a scientist held a bizarre-looking helmet as he spoke into a microphone being held by a reporter. It was some kind of local news feed - not live, but the time stamp in the corner told Betty it had been taped few minutes ago by one of her GJ technicians.

"Doctor Langford," said the reporter, "this sounds like quite a breakthrough in medical research!"

"I've spent five years working with the Middleton Hospital to develop the MRM – the Memory Recovery Machine. People suffering from amnesia haven't really lost their memories, per se, they've lost _access_ to them. The MRM reestablishes the mental link, if you will."

In demonstration, he donned the helmet. The reporter watched as Langford's eyes widened.

"Doctor," she asked, "are you alright?"

"Whoops! I left the stove on. Gotta go!"

The reporter spent a few more moments talking about the new invention until Agent Du cut off the feed, standing at attention and waiting for orders from Betty.

They had been monitoring Langford's progress over the last few years after learning about the nature of his research, but no one had told Betty he was making progress so quickly. As usual, her resources at Global Justice always seemed to fall woefully short. Sometimes she wished she had a whole team of Kim Possibles under her supervision, if only they were a little easier to reign in. "I thought we were keeping an eye on him?" she asked her agent.

"We were," said Will Du, looking a little sheepish – Betty had learned to pick up on his subtle expressions over the years, where a normal person would only see a mask of stoicism. "Things have been a little hectic lately with the situation between Kim Possible, Shego and the Lorwardian monitoring, and Doctor Langford made a lot of progress in the last few weeks."

Doctor Langford's invention was very interesting to Global Justice, partly for possible future applications, and partly because it would be a threat on the off chance Kim Possible used it. It seemed very unlikely, but seeing as Kim was sort of a pet project for Betty, she didn't want to take any chances. They'd have to send a few agents over to Langford and see what they could do about taking the invention off his hands. It wasn't exactly legal, but with a mixture of threats and compensation, almost anyone could be persuaded.

"Send a few agents, then," she said.

"Um, it's a little more complicated than that."

"Why?"

"Kim Possible is attending a children's event at Middleton Hospital right now."

Dr. Director frowned. Now that was _definitely_ bad timing. The one person they didn't want anywhere near a Memory Recovery Machine was in the same building, while the scientist who invented it was talking to the media. It was still unlikely anything would happen, since it sounded like Kim was there for unrelated reasons, but Betty definitely didn't like the proximity. If they sent agents now, it might raise suspicions – but then, if they didn't, there was a chance Kim might get her hands on the device, which would undermine everything they had been working for.

Not only that, but an invention like the MRM was like supervillain catnip. Anything that manipulated memories could be reverse engineered by an opportunistic supervillain for a number of nefarious ends, after all. Someone like Drakken, who 'outsourced' a lot of his work, would love getting his little blue hands on it.

"Ma'am?"

Betty turned to see Agent Ullman, who had just risen from his computer station.

"What is it, Agent Ullman?"

"Drakken and Shego are on the move."

Betty groaned. Things were getting worse by the minute! If Drakken and Shego got their hands on that device, that would ramp up the odds of Kim trying it out. At least she had been proven right – there was no way Drakken could resist such a juicy piece of new technology. Either he and Shego had been keeping track of Dr. Langford's progress, just like Global Justice, or Drakken had seen the unveiling on television and decided stealing a new toy was just as good as anything else he had on his schedule today.

She was glad GJ had pinpointed the location of Drakken's lair after Kim began her infiltration mission. Using a temporary lair, so close to Middleton? It was a dumb move. But then, secret lair locations had never been one of Drakken's strong points. Leaving known supervillains alone when she knew their location was counterintuitive to Betty, but she knew that her little social experiments with Kim and Shego were more interesting in the long run. And hopefully more productive. Besides, they could always strike when a good opportunity presented itself.

"How long until they get to the hospital?" she asked.

"Not long. About twenty minutes."

Betty considered the situation. She wasn't sure about the best course of action.

The worse case scenario was Drakken and Shego getting hold of that Memory Recovery Machine – if they did, it seemed possible that all of them might try it on, just out of curiosity. And if Kim was hanging out at their lair, that meant trouble. Betty didn't know exactly how the MRM worked, or how far back it could dredge things up, but there were certain memories Kim might have lurking in her mind, memories stretching far back in her childhood, that needed to stay buried.

"Call Dr. Langford at the hospital," she told Du. "Tell him there is reason to believe someone might be about to steal his invention, tell him to hide it somewhere, and then go over there with Agent Ullman to pick it up. Bring another couple of agents along, just in case. But make sure Kim Possible doesn't see any of you, unless you have no choice – it will be easier if we don't have to answer any questions about why we're so interested in that machine."

"What if Drakken and Shego get there first?"

"We'd have to tell Kim Possible to hold back and let us go after them, so she doesn't blow the cover she has going on with Shego. Stoppable and that synthodrone Kim clone might be useful for that. We'll have to figure out how to explain everything away after the fact, but right now, we need to move."

"Yes, ma'am."

Will Du and Agent Ullman both went off to muster up a couple more agents for their interception squad. Betty watched them go, wondering how everything could be getting so complicated so fast.

She had to remember Ron's news about Jack Hench, too - maybe something _was_ going on there. Bortel's mail order synthodrone operation had definitely been skirting on the edges of supervillainy. She would have to check things out, but she didn't want Kim or Ron getting their noses into that – Global Justice and Cyrus Bortel had enough links that it could end up looking very bad for them, after all. Bortel needed to be set straight, if he was up to anything. It would be a shame to have to lock up someone who had been so useful in the past, especially when so many major problems were on the horizon.

First things first, though. Betty turned the computer monitor, where the news piece with Dr. Langford was replaying. She paused it during a clip centered on the Memory Recovery Machine and stared thoughtfully at the device. It had a lot of potential uses, which made it interesting for both Global Justice and various supervillains.

But when it came to Kim Possible, it could be their undoing.

XX

* * *

_**Notes** - In case you're wondering, yes, the helmet is from the episode "Clean Slate." I'm kind of working that event into this story in a different way._

_Also, if anyone is interested, I also have two other stories going at the moment, Pater Unfamiliar and A Pinky Joe Curly Tail. While both contain K/R, neither are centered on Kim or Ron. Drakken and his family are the focus of the first story, while James Possible and Drakken (in college, back in the day) are the focus of the second. Check them out if you want, and let me know what you think of them if you do.  
_


	14. Lies

**Lies**

XX

A pair of arms wrapped around Ron's stomach as his little blue scooter puttered into view of the back of Middleton Hospital. The arms were comforting, familiar. He had felt them wrapped around his stomach before, riding on the scooter to one place or another, although they weren't the same arms. Almost, but not quite.

"Do I get to see Kim Possible?"

The voice spoke into his ear, muted from the labored chugging coming from the scooter's engine. Just like the arms, the voice brought back memories. It was the same voice, really. Sometimes the things it said were different, but the voice was the same. The synthodrone was like Kim in every way, except when it came to personality.

Personality _was_ kind of a big difference, though.

"Actually," Ron said, "would you mind waiting out here by the scooter?"

"Why? I thought we were going to tell her?"

Ron maneuvered the scooter until it was parked near a street corner just behind Middleton Hospital's employee parking lot, partially concealed behind some large hedges. He glanced around the side of the hedges into the lot – Kim's Sloth was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she had parked out in the larger lot out in front. The two of them got off the scooter, and Rufus, who had been riding in the basket, hopped onto his shoulder. He removed his helmet, but indicated that Kimberly Anne should keep hers on, just in case Kim came out of the hospital unexpectedly.

"We'll tell her," he said, looking out at the hospital's employee entrance, "but I don't want her to get too freaked out or anything, so I thought I'd break it to her kinda slow. The last time you two met, it was pretty weird; I don't know how she'll react to you. Plus, I have to do this kid's event with her first. Gotta keep the kids entertained! You don't mind waiting out here, do you?"

"No, I'll be fine. I can inspect these leaves here!"

Kimberly Anne turned to the hedges and stared intensely at them.

"That's, uh, weird. But whatever floats your boat."

"Mm, see ya!" squeaked Rufus.

Kimberly Anne nodded as she settled down on the back of the scooter and stared blankly at the hedges. Ron looked back in amusement a few times as he left the sidewalk and made his way through the lot. He was glad the tests seemed to come out alright at Global Justice – the scientist, Dr. Haytham, had told him there was nothing to be afraid of when it came to the synthodrone. Or Kimberly Anne, as she liked to be called. He kept forgetting. The synthodrone was no longer visible from behind the bushes across the lot when Ron entered the hospital.

"What are you doing back here?" asked a passing nurse.

"Entertaining the kids, lady!"

"What?"

"I'm here for the Pediatric Fun Squad event."

"Oh, right. Down the hall, fourth room on your left."

"Thanks!"

Ron took a deep breath as he faced the rest of the hallway. By some trick of the imagination, it seemed to widen out and recede into the distance as he watched. He could see the door to the fourth room on the left, a great distance away, lurking like a threat.

He knew Kim would be here. It was her mother's workplace, after all, and Kim hated missing out on obligations, especially when it came to an event like this. He had thought about ditching the event, as Kim would probably keep the kids entertained, but changed his mind at the last minute on the way home from his visit to Global Justice. It would be awkweird trying to laugh and have fun with Kim, but those kids needed him and his mole rat pet to entertain them with his zany antics.

And Monique was right about what she'd been saying lately. He and Kim _did_ need to talk about things. He knew he had been pushing her away, and whether or not she deserved it, Ron was tired of it. At the very least, he didn't want to avoid her in the halls at school anymore. Today had been a productive day, and Wade had told him that he would need to let Kim know about the synthodrone copy of her sooner or later - now was as good a time as any to get it out of the way. Maybe once their fun squad event was over, Kimberly Anne would be a strangely effective ice-breaker. Ron steeled himself for the rough hour or so that was coming up.

"Ready to entertain, little buddy?"

Rufus nodded and gave Ron an encouraging pat on the neck.

He took one step, then another. The door loomed closer, and the sound of laughter rang out from inside. His couldn't let his problems with Kim get in the way of the Pediatric Fun Squad – the Ron Man needed to be there for the kiddies! The room fell silent as Ron reached the entrance and looked inside; children turned their heads in his direction. A few of them gave enthusiastic claps at the sight of Rufus. Kim, standing in the middle of a group of children, looked surprised as he nervously entered the room.

"Oh. Hey, Ron."

"Hey, KP."

"I didn't know you were coming."

"Well, I figured the kids need me. What are you guys up to?"

Kim was silent for a moment, as if wondering whether or not the two of them could have a normal conversation. Finally, she spoke: "I was telling them about one of my missions, but we can do something different if you want."

"Make Rufus fly through the air!" one of the kids yelled.

"Yeah!" added another child. "Like last time!"

Rufus looked at Ron and shook his head pleadingly.

"Um, my buddy Rufus ate a little too much before he got here. How about we blow up balloons?"

Several of the kids booed and jeered. Ron gulped; he had a couple of balloons on him, but without his mole rat pet's acrobatic antics, and in the company of an ex-girlfriend and a tough crowd, things could get ugly, fast. He was about to get down to business and do some kind of crazy dance to warm up the audience when he and Kim turned back to the door at the sound of a knock. An unfamiliar man in a white lab coat and glasses stood in the doorway.

"You're Kim Possible?" he asked, pointing at Kim.

"That's me."

"Sorry to interrupt, but my name is Dr. Langford. I work with the hospital. I was just doing something for the local press, but I received a phone call a moment ago from Global Justice informing me that someone may be planning to steal my MRM."

"MRM?" asked Ron.

"Memory Recovery Machine. They told me to find a place to hide it until they could come over and pick it up for temporary safekeeping, but I knew you were going to be here at the hospital for an event as well - so I thought, who better to keep my invention safe than Kim Possible?"

Kim frowned. "They didn't say who might be stealing it?"

"I'm afraid not. They're sending a few agents over momentarily."

"Did Global Justice say we were in any kind of danger?"

"I'm afraid they were fairly tight-lipped."

Ron exchanged a confused look with Kim, but she didn't seem to know anything more than he did. Global Justice definitely hadn't mentioned anything about this to him, even though they had just been to their meeting at the GJ headquarters. Maybe they had only just learned about an impending attack on the hospital. Several of the children looked around, a little frightened by what was going on, although a few others looked excited at the idea that they might get to see an attack soon. Maybe Kim's mission stories had gotten them in the mood for action.

"You can stay in here until GJ arrives," Kim told Dr. Langford. "We'll keep an eye on things. I'd better stay close to the kids, too, just in case anybody comes in here pulling any stunts."

The doctor nodded in thanks and whipped a bizarre helmet from behind his back, covered in metal tubing. The children _oohed_ and _aahed_, gathering around to look at the helmet as he came into the room. Ron thought it looked pretty cool – almost like something he would have worn as Zorpox. "What's it do?" he asked.

"It helps you remember things you may have forgotten," said Dr. Langford.

"Badical."

"Would you like to try it?"

Ron shook his head. "If I forget something, I figure it's not worth remembering. Maybe KP should try it."

A chorus of agreement came from the children around the room, wanting to see someone try out the new toy. Kim looked reluctant – if Ron had to guess, it was probably a case of nervousness after having seen the explosive effects of some of the devices her twin brothers had invented over the years – but, unable to refuse the kids, she shrugged haplessly and took the helmet from Dr. Langford. Just before she was about to put it on, however, a pair of men burst through the door of the children's ward.

"Stop!" they yelled.

Kim froze, helmet halfway to her head.

"You can't put that on!" said one of the men. "It's, uh – it's dangerous."

"Dangerous!" exclaimed Dr. Langford. "It's been thoroughly beta-tested! I can't count how many times I remembered my keys before leaving for work, and only once did I receive a serious shock from the device. And that was my fault - I was standing on thick carpeting!"

Ron looked down reflexively: no thick carpeting in _this_ room, fortunately.

"Wait a minute," said Kim. "Global Justice?"

She was referring to the two men – their arrival had been so sudden that even Ron hadn't noticed for a moment, but they were, in fact, Global Justice agents. One of them was Will Du, who gave Ron a humorless look. They weren't wearing GJ uniforms, which had thrown him off.

He didn't remember either Will Du _or_ Dr. Director saying anything about coming to the hospital when he was at the GJ facility. What was going on? Not only did Ron recognize Will Du, but he knew the other man too, who had a expression even more sour than the one Du was wearing, if that was even possible. "Oh, hey!" he said. "Agent Ullman, what's going on!"

Agent Ullman looked at him in confusion.

"Who the hell are you?"

"I was just at the GJ facility, getting – uh, I was just at the facility earlier today. We played on the Play Cube together in the lounge, remember?"

Kim gave Ron a strange look. He felt the situation getting more bizarre by the minute.

"Oh, yeah," said Agent Ullman, finally recognizing him. "Stompable, or something. Nice to see you again." The agent turned to Kim. "Anyway, Kim Possible, give us the helmet. We need to bring it back to Global Justice for containment. Drakken and Shego are coming to steal it."

"What? Neither of them told me anything about that."

"Maybe they don't trust you enough yet," said Will Du. "We can't let them steal the MRM, so we need to take it before they get here. Dr. Langford, hand over-"

They were interrupted by a loud explosion coming from the other side of the children's ward. The wall crumbled inwards, sending a shower of plaster, dust, and debris into the room. Children squealed in their beds, shielding themselves as chunks of plaster rained down. The dust settled, revealing a gaping hole in the wall. Ron caught a glimpse of some kind of office through the hole just before two familiar figures stepped into the room: Drakken and Shego.

"Dr. Langford!" yelled Drakken. "Hand over the Memory Recovery Machine! It's mine now!"

Dr. Langford hugged the helmet closer to his chest. "I don't think so! Why does everyone want my MRM all of a sudden?"

Shego raised a clawed hand, a ball of roiling plasma building up, but it fizzled out when she noticed who else was in the room with them. "Princess?" she said, gaping at Kim.

"I'm here too!" Ron chimed in.

Drakken nodded. "Yes, the buffoon."

Kim seemed unsure of what to do, looking between Dr. Langford and their newly arrived foes. Ron had to remind himself that she had been spending a lot of time with Drakken and Shego lately, so he wasn't 100% sure the two of them were really Kim's foes anymore. It looked like the arrival of Global Justice and Drakken and Shego all at the same time did not bode well for Kim's ability to keep her covert mission under wraps. Kim crossed her arms, trying to gain some kind of composure. "What are you two doing here?" she asked.

"We're here to take Dr. Langford's invention," said Shego. "Duh. What are _you_ doing here?"

"I'm here for the Pediatric Fun Squad."

Drakken looked at the children around him, who were sitting up in the beds, enthusiastically absorbed in this new turn of events. He looked uncomfortable around kids. "The pediawhatsit?" he said.

"We entertain kids at the hospital," said Ron.

"Kids? Entertaining? What am I missing here?"

"Forget about it," said Kim. "You guys can't steal Dr. Langford's invention, okay? Why do you even want it, Drakken?"

"Wha - I'm a supervillain! Why _wouldn't_ I want it?"

"Come on, Princess," said Shego, "why don't you join us? What are you doing here with a bunch of kids? And what are you doing here with _Ron_?" she added, looking a little irked at seeing the two of them together. "Let's get that crazy helmet thing and get the hell out of here."

Everyone in the room looked expectantly at Kim, who seemed to be at a loss. Ron thought Shego's request seemed ridiculous, and yet Kim was hesitating; before she could make any response, however, Agent Du and Agent Ullman, who had been standing near the door, stepped forward into Drakken and Shego's line of sight. "You two," said Du, "You're coming with us!"

"And just who are _you?_" snapped Drakken.

"Global Justice!"

"Why aren't you wearing your little outfits?"

"We had to go undercover, just in case-"

Will Du stopped abruptly, glancing at Kim. Their undercover infiltration mission definitely seemed to be on the verge of collapse. Not only that, but Ron was getting a strange creepy feeling about Global Justice and the MRM. Why had Will Du been so afraid of Kim putting it on just a moment ago? Before he could come right out and ask, Shego got tired of the chitchat and sent a blast of green plasma hurtling towards Agent Ullman, who flew backwards into the wall. "Gimme that helmet!" she yelled, snatching it from Dr. Langford's hands.

"Shego!" yelled Kim. "Please, wait!"

Shego was in the process of turning back towards the hole in the wall when she heard Kim's plea, which seemed to catch her off guard. She ran into Drakken as he stood dumbly by. The two of them fell in a tangled heap, sending the MRM rolling across the floor. Will Du snatched it up and spoke into a communicator on his wrist. "Requesting reinforcements," he said. "Children's ward."

Shego got up with a snarl and leaped forward, trading blows with Will Du. Ron was impressed – maybe he was a total stick in the mud, but Agent Du had some pretty cool moves. Agent Ullman, recovering from his plasma blast, got to his feet and joined his Global Justice partner as the two of them fought off Shego. They were well trained, but it was obvious that, in the long run, they were no match for their green foe.

Somehow, this year's Pediatric Fun Squad had descended into chaos and anarchy even faster than the one Ron remembered a couple years ago, when that one crazy kid blew the circuit breakers. He didn't know what to do next, either – make sure Drakken and Shego didn't grab the MRM? Take Drakken on himself?

"Guys!" yelled Kim.

Two other GJ agents spilled into the room from outside in the hospital hallway, joining the fray. Now it was Shego who was starting to look outmatched. None of the agents could take her on individually, but she was taking on four well-trained opponents at a time. Drakken tried to dart in and grab the Memory Recovery Machine after it was kicked from Will Du's hands by a glancing shot from Shego, but it bounced away from him, across the floor. Ron ran after it, trying to beat Drakken to the punch. The two of them smacked painfully into each other.

"Get off me, buffoon!" yelled Drakken.

"You first!"

Ron wrestled his foe wildly on the ground. The two of them rolled into a couple of wooden hospital bed legs and heard children above them, cheering as they looked down at the floor from their beds.

"Go for the crotch!" one screamed.

"Grab him by the ponytail! Pull hard!"

Ron and Drakken shared a worried look as they wrestled. _These kids are getting wilder every year_, Ron thought.

"Guys!" he heard Kim yell again. "Let's not fight in here! Get out of the children's ward, please!"

"Glad to, Kimmie!"

Shego managed to knock the four agents back, sending them toppling into Dr. Langford and gaining enough time to grab the MRM from the floor and make a break for the hole in the wall. Drakken saw her leaving and extricated himself from Ron, getting up and racing off just behind his henchwoman. Ron tried to trip him, but missed. He saw Kim running in the direction of Drakken and Shego. Was she going to join them? He felt guilty for even thinking it, but what else was he supposed to think? The way she had been acting lately-

"Come on," said Will Du, grabbing him by the hand and pulling him up from the ground.

Ron joined the four Global Justice agents as they raced through the broken hole in the wall and into the office beyond it. They took a left through another door after seeing Kim disappear through it in pursuit of their foes. Dr. Langford stayed behind, apparently recognizing he wasn't much use in a fight. Ron heard a few of the kids shouting out encouragement as he left the children's ward behind.

Before long, the group had exited the front of the hospital together, running through a reception room filled with confused patients waiting for their checkups and out into the main parking lot. After a quick scan, Ron caught side of Drakken and Shego farther down the lot, racing towards Shego's hovercraft. Kim was just behind them. Ron weaved through parked cars, waiting to see what would happen – waiting to see if Kim would leap into the hovercraft with the two supervillains and make a break for it, or stop them.

Maybe leaving with them wouldn't mean she had joined Drakken and Shego, anyway. She was supposed to be on a covert mission, at least that was what she had told him, and if she stayed here and fought with Global Justice, that _did_ sort of blow her cover. Ron couldn't make heads or tails of it. But he didn't have long to wait – he saw Kim make a mad dash, catching Shego just before she reached the hovercraft and knocking her to the pavement, sending the MRM to the pavement with a loud crunching sound.

At this rate, there was no _way_ that thing was going to work right anymore.

"What the hell!" yelled Shego, struggling away from Kim's grasp and leaping up from the asphalt, hands engulfed in green flame. "Who's side are you on, Princess?"

Drakken managed to snatch up the MRM from the ground, but by this time, Kim had blocked his way to the hovercraft, leaving her two foes cut off from their escape route as Ron and the GJ agents caught up to them. Everyone gathered in a loose circle, yards away from the hovercraft, circling tensely in a sort of standoff. Shego and Kim looked like they were on the verge of attacking each other.

"What do you think?" Kim snapped. "You come here to steal something and you expect me to just join you? You didn't even tell me what you were doing!"

"Well, that's because we weren't sure if you – we weren't sure you would want-"

Shego faltered, apparently recognizing her hypocrisy.

"We thought stealing something like the MRM might be a little _advanced_ for you, alright?"

"Advanced? What does that mean?"

"Well, it just – I mean, it's not like stealing from Dementor, that's all."

Will Du and Agent Ullman both pulled out what looked like some kind of pistol weapons. Ron had never seen Global Justice using guns before, but he figured they could be some kind of crazy tazers. Shego smirked at the sight, as if she was amused by the idea that her enemies thought they could take her down with a weapon when their martial arts skills had failed them already.

"Kim Possible," said Drakken, "I thought things were working out quite well ever since you and Shego started shacking up. Doing the nasty – that's what the kids say nowadays, right? But we were beginning to feel like a little family! Didn't you have _fun_ stealing from Dementor?"

"Yeah," Kim admitted, "that was kinda fun. But this is different!"

Shego pointed at the GJ agents gathered around them. "What's the deal with Global Justice, anyway? Why are you guys here?"

"We tracked you coming to steal the MRM."

Shego narrowed her eyes, looking at the GJ agents, then at Kim. "Are you two working together?" she snapped. "is that what's been going on all along, Kimmie? Some kind of ploy, so you could help GJ put us back behind bars?"

"No!" said Kim. "Of course not!"

Will Du gave Kim a harsh glare before turning back to Shego. "Kim Possible has _not_ been working with us," he said. "And if she joins you, she'll be joining you behind bars. Hand over the MRM, immediately."

"I'll _never_ give up the Memory Recovery Machine!" yelled Drakken, trying to edge towards the hovercraft, although it was obvious there was no chance he could get past Kim. "I am completely confident that Kim Possible here will join us, as any sane person would want to be on _my_ side when I inevitably take over the earth. Come with us, Possible!"

Kim looked at Drakken and Shego, as if considering her options. Shego gave her an encouraging look, and Will Du took a threatening step forward. "Kim Possible," he said, "if you join them, you will be a fugitive too. Don't do anything stupid."

Ron may have been imagining things, but he could have sworn he saw Will Du giving Kim a surreptitious wink. He was angled away from Drakken and Shego, so neither of them could see it happen. Was it all an act? Maybe Du was a better actor than Ron would have expected. Of course, barking out orders was probably not stretching his acting ability all that much. There was no way Global Justice would actually put Kim under arrest; they _had_ to be trying to keep up Kim's covert mission.

Kim seemed to notice the wink, and took a step towards the hovercraft. Shego extended a hand, and she took it as Drakken let out a cackle of triumph. "Now," he said, "if you know what's good for you, you'll get out of the way so we can-"

Out of nowhere, a man in a black jumpsuit slammed into Drakken, simultaneously knocking him over and snatching the Memory Recovery Machine from his grasp. Ron stared at the man, nonplussed, as did everyone else gathered near the hovercraft.

"Who are you?" asked Kim.

Tucking the helmet under one arm, the strange man ran past their group. He was just about to disappear past a row of parked cars when Will Du took careful aim and shot his pistol. Ron was right about it being an energy weapon – nothing came out of the gun that he could see, but there was a strange crackly fizzling sound. The man in the black jumpsuit lost his balance, as if hit by an invisible force, and sprawled out over the hood of a car, dropping the MRM. Will Du raced over to pick it up.

"Uh, hey guys," said Ron, "looks like trouble!"

Will Du returned to his fellow Global Justice agents just in time – Ron noticed more men in black jumpsuits emerge from all around them. At least six or seven. From the looks of it, they had been hiding behind bushes and parked cars around the lot. One of them helped up their companion who had been stunned by Du's energy weapon. Drakken and Shego had been encircled by Kim, Ron, and the GJ agents, but now they all found themselves surrounded by an even wider ring of unfamiliar men in black jumpsuits and masks. Ron thought they looked a bit like ninjas, except they were bulkier – more like the kind of henchmen he and Kim usually encountered while they fighting Drakken or Dementor.

"Identify yourselves!" said Will Du.

Instead of answering, the men rushed forward to attack.

Shego and Kim were the first to meet their new foes, trading a flurry of kicks and punches, while Will Du managed to fend off one of the men for a few moments with one hand until he passed the MRM to Agent Ullman. Unfortunately, Ullman promptly found himself under attack by a pair of enemies – he threw the MRM to another GJ agent who was looking around wildly at the sudden proliferation of their mysterious opponents. Ron could tell they were in trouble; whoever these new people were, they seemed to want to steal Dr. Langford's invention just as much as Drakken and Shego wanted it.

"Hey, dude!" he yelled to Agent Ullman, who had gotten the MRM back after dispatching a couple of black-clad foes with some well-placed shots from his energy pistol. "Pass it over to me! I'm good at running around!"

Agent Ullman looked skeptical, but there wasn't much time to consider Ron's offer, as another foe was running straight for him. He threw Ron the helmet. Ron almost dropped it before getting a better grip on it after a few near-fumbles. He immediately noticed several of the men in black jumpsuits turning in his direction, although a couple of them ended up smacked to the pavement by Kim and Shego for their lack of attention. Ron was surprised to see how easily Kim and Shego seemed to work together. It was like they were tag teaming their opponents. He noticed Kim shoving an opponent in Shego's direction, who caught him in a clothesline without even looking, her attention on another enemy. With the two of them in the fight, he didn't think these new jokers had much of a chance.

There _were_ a lot of them, though.

"Watch out, Ron!"

Kim's shout came just in time. Ron noticed one of the burly ninja henchmen rushing towards him from the left and ducked. The man had been swinging a punch, but ended up knocking himself off balance. He tripped over Ron's back and went hurtling straight into the grille of a nearby truck. At times like these, Ron wished his Mystical Monkey Power was a little more controllable. Maybe Kim would see how silly it was to go for Shego when she had a hunky guy who could float in midair and take down ninja bad guys with blue energy blasts.

_ Bad time to daydream_, Ron told himself as another enemy rushed towards him. _ Time to run!_

"Give me that helmet!"

Ron dodged around a car and began to weave in and out of rows of vehicles. The helmet was unwieldy to hold under an arm while he was running; he decided putting it on his head would be a better idea. Still running, he plopped it down on his sandy blond hair, muffling the sound of footsteps in hot pursuit. Almost as soon as the helmet touched his head, Ron felt a strange prickly sensation in his brain; moments later, he remembered that he had totally forgotten all about the science project he was supposed to be doing by Monday. It was harder to remember his homework when he didn't have Kim around badgering him to get things done.

"Can't catch me!" he yelled at his pursuers, sticking his tongue out. "Talk about slow, you can't even-"

Ron smacked painfully into a metal pole holding up one of the parking lot lights. Turning around and taunting his pursuers, apparently, had been a bad idea. He sprawled out over the pavement, feeling the sensation of the metal pole tingling across his body where he had come in contact with it. His pursuers – two of them, from the looks of it – stopped as they looked down at him and laughed. Ron felt the helmet pulled from his head.

"Stop," he said, his voice weak. They didn't listen.

The burly black-clad henchmen receded from view with the Memory Recovery Machine. Ron tried to get up, but smacking into that pole with the helmet had been pretty painful – he slumped back down to the ground, feeling dizzy. He was too weak to shout out a warning to Kim or Global Justice. Hopefully someone would catch them before they made off with the MRM, whoever they were. But for now, the Ron Man was down for the count.

XX

The fight was raging around the hovercraft, but Kim had broken off in pursuit of the Memory Recovery Machine after seeing a couple of black-clad henchmen running off with it. Ron had been darting in and out of rows of cars earlier, but she had lost sight of him – either way, she needed to grab that MRM before her foes outran her. They had tried to escape anyone's notice by running towards the hospital and skirting around the side of the building, but Kim was hot on their heels. She picked up the pace as the three of them arrived in the smaller employee lot behind the building.

They passed through the lot, weaving in and out of cars, until they skirted around a row of hedges blocking the hospital grounds off from the rest of the town. Kim followed them, but as she passed the hedges herself, about to pursue her mysterious targets over a little street behind the hospital, she caught sight Ron's blue scooter leaning against the bushes a few yards away. Just as she was about to pass it, she stopped.

The two strange henchmen gained ground quickly, crossing the road and disappearing into a dark alley on the other side nestled between a couple of old brick buildings. At this rate, they would be long gone in moments. But Kim had already lost her concentration completely. She stared at the girl sitting on the scooter, who was staring ahead with a blank smile. After a moment, the girl seemed to notice her, as if she was roused from a daydream.

"What are you-"

Kim trailed off. Her doppelganger – Shego's sex toy – sitting on Ron's scooter? She was at a loss for words.

"Hello!" said her mirror image. "You're Kim Possible!"

Kim nodded slowly at the obvious statement.

"Ron brought me here. He was going to have us meet again, but he wanted me to wait out here in the lot. I think he was still a little nervous. But now you're here. Nice to see you again!"

The synthodrone seemed ridiculously chirpy. She had caught a little bit of that personality when she had first seen the thing in Drakken's lair, too. Not really like her at all, Kim thought; unless she was just biased.

The little street running beside them was quiet, with only the occasional car passing by. Even with the hedge, the employee lot, and the hospital building itself to her right, however, Kim could hear the faint sounds of the fight raging off in the main lot out front. It had been bizarre, seeing Shego and Global Justice in a temporary alliance after the arrival of the strange new henchmen. Kim realized she had lost sight of the two henchmen she had been pursuing and cursed silently before looking at her synthetic twin again, wondering just what was going on.

"Are you alone?" her double asked.

Kim tensed up, wondering if she was about to be attacked; was the synthodrone working for Shego? But it had said that _Ron_ brought it here... she nodded slowly, seeing as it was obvious she was alone anyway.

"Ron and I have been doing some missions," the synthodrone explained, sensing Kim's confusion. "I came to stay at his house after Shego kicked me out of her lair. Not to have sex with him – I'm only programmed to do that with Shego. But I thought I could learn from him."

"Learn what?"

"About myself. About you."

Kim looked at the synthodrone suspiciously.

"Learn more about me?"

The syntho-Kim stood up from the scooter and took a step towards Kim, smiling.

"So I could replace you!"

Kim's suspicions had been correct.

The synthodrone came at her with a sharp jab, catching Kim in the stomach. She doubled over, gasping in pain. She had been ready for an attack a moment ago, but the synthodrone's brief talk had caught her off guard – before she could recover, a karate chop to the back sent her collapsing to the ground on her stomach. The synthodrone kicked her in the stomach while she was down, but it turned out to be exactly what Kim needed – the kick rolled her onto her back, so that when the synthodrone leaped at her, Kim met her opponent with a sweeping kick to the ankles. It sprawled on the ground alongside her.

Kim leaped up only seconds before the synthodrone. "What are you doing?" she yelled. Why are you trying to replace me? Did someone program you to do this?"

The synthodrone looked angered by the question, for some reason. It came at her with a storm of punches, shockingly fast, but this time Kim was ready. She managed to block most of them before catching the synthodrone with a solid kick to the chest, which sent it flying back into Ron's scooter. Synthodrone and scooter fell back in a tangled heap into the hedges. The synthodrone pushed the scooter violently away, blocking Kim from going on the offensive until it could recover. Kim ended up stepping into the street to dodge the flying scooter, and her double followed her. The two of them circled each other in the middle of the road, looking for an opening.

"I'm doing this for myself," said the synthodrone. "I need to get Shego back, but I can't do that if you're in the way – she loves you, because you're the real thing. I have to replace you if I want to be with her!"

The synthodrone came at her again, attacking furiously as it tried to break through Kim's defenses. The punches, the kicks, the blocks, the feints – they were a strange mixture of different feels. Some of them seemed artificial, like they had been pre-programmed, but some of them seemed more natural. The synthodrone wasn't as fluid as a human fighter, but it was also faster, more powerful, which easily evened out its weaknesses.

And Kim had the strange feeling that some of its attacks were familiar. Some of them seemed like moves Shego had tried on her during their fights in the past. Some of them seemed like things Kim had tried on Shego. The synthodrone's style was an unsettling amalgam of herself, Shego, and someone – or some_thing_ – entirely new.

"Why would Shego love you if you replaced me?" asked Kim as the two of them broke off for a moment, looking for another opportunity. "She'd hate you for doing that!"

"She won't know," said the synthodrone. "I'll have to hide your body before she sees."

"Is that really what you want? That's totally sick and wrong!"

The synthodrone feinted left as Kim tried to catch her off guard, then darted right to avoid another attack. Maybe it was Kim's imagination, but it seemed to be drawing her away from the hospital, across the street to the alley where the strange henchmen had disappeared. Maybe it was trying to get the two of them out of view. She circled around and backed closer to the hedges which ringed the hospital's back lot, preferring to have the hospital nearby in case she needed to run for it. Kim was tough, but this synthodrone – well, it was stronger than any of the others she had fought, that was for sure.

"Sick and wrong?" asked the synthodrone.

"It's _immoral_," clarified Kim.

"Morality," said the synthodrone. "I don't really understand this morality you humans have. I've been learning, but it's difficult to grasp. And how can you object to me killing you when you tried to kill me?"

"What?"

"When you went to Cyrus Bortel's lair and tried to get him to disable me."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Kim. "I never did that – he's lying to you!"

The synthodrone hesitated, and Kim took the opening, driving her back with several hard punches. The two of them danced dangerously across the road. At one point, a car passed, and Kim thought she heard the sound of somebody catcalling as they drove by – followed closely by the sound of tires screeching loudly as the car swerved, probably when the guy noticed that the two hot girls fighting each other were identical twins.

"I have to do what will fulfill my purpose," said the synthodrone, as if it was trying to convince the two of them that killing Kim was its only option. "I need to be with Shego and make her happy. I can only do that if you're not around, Kim Possible."

"You can't replace me," said Kim. "You're nothing like me! I don't know what Shego was thinking when she made you – you couldn't fool her for a second if you got rid of me! She'd know what you did."

"I've been learning," said the synthodrone. "I've been learning about you from Ron!"

"No you haven't. And how do you know you can make Shego happy? What if you're just making excuses? Maybe you only want to make _yourself_ happy."

The synthodrone seemed to be even more caught off-guard this time. Once again, Kim used the opportunity to land several hard punches. It tried to fight her off, but now, Kim had the upper hand. She pressed forward as the synthodrone took a kick to the side, scrambling backwards, ducking – this was her opening. She darted forward, but was surprised to find the synthodrone narrowly dodging her punch and leaping forward, low to the ground, and catching her in a bear hug around the waist. Kim lost her balance and fell to the asphalt with a painful thud. Before she knew it, the synthodrone was on top of her, hands wrapped around her neck.

"I'm sorry," it said. "There's no other way."

Kim gasped for breath as the hands tightened. She wriggled under the synthodrone's body, but it had her pinned down firmly to the pavement. She felt a heavy sensation coming over her face as she tried to take in air – she knew punching the synthodrone was a better option, but in a moment of panic, she clawed at the hands around her neck, desperate for release.

This couldn't be the end. This was _not_ the way she wanted to go. Killed by some synthetic _thing,_ a thing which had stolen her body and wanted her life to go along with it.

_"Stop!_"

Kim looked up at herself. Someone from just outside her field of view caught the synthodrone square in the chin with a sweeping kick. Its hands released themselves from Kim's neck, and she gasped gratefully for a breath of air as the synthodrone went flying across the pavement. Kim tried to get up, but she had been on the verge of losing consciousness; she lay sprawled on the ground, still breathing heavily, until she saw Shego looking down at her.

"Come on, Princess. We gotta go."

Shego picked her up and carried her to the hovercraft, which was hovering a foot or two above the road, a few feet away, with Drakken piloting it.

Kim could see her synthodrone copy sitting on the pavement, watching as the two of them got ready to board the craft. It had a strange expression on its face. When Kim had first met it, sitting on Ron's scooter, and even while she was fighting it, the synthodrone had seemed strangely upbeat, smiling a little vacantly.

Now, however, it was definitely sad.

"Wait!" it exclaimed.

Shego hesitated.

"Please don't go! I've been trying to learn what I can do, how I can make you happy, but I don't understand – why did you want me to leave? I've been trying to be more like Kim! Isn't that what you want?"

Shego had already placed Kim in the back seat of the hovercraft. She stared blankly at the synthodrone before leaping up onto the hovercraft herself. "You're not Kim," she said. "I shouldn't have had Bortel make you. It was a mistake. There's nothing you can do."

The hovercraft began to rise above the road, passing over the hedges, above the parking lot, above the hospital itself, as Drakken and Shego made their escape from the hospital. Kim couldn't help looking over the side at the synthodrone as it stared up at them. She thought about protesting; she hadn't asked to come with Shego and Drakken, and she had barely even begun to make sense of the situation. But then she remember she had been about to join them, keeping up her covert mission, just before those mysterious newcomers had arrived to make off with the MRM. She didn't think she could even speak right now, anyway, as she was still struggling to breath easily. She was tired and aching after the hard fight, exhausted, and her throat felt like a vice was clamped around it. She sank back into her seat.

Kim couldn't make sense of it. Was Ron working with the synthodrone? After it had tried to kill her? It couldn't be – either that, or Ron didn't know it was bad. He must have been fooled. She would have to warn him soon, since the thing was obviously dangerous. Kim's head lolled to the side as she looked at Shego, who was giving her a worried look – but the sight of her lover brought back a memory. Seeing that synthodrone still alive had Kim more confused than ever.

Shego _hadn't_ gotten rid of the synthodrone, like she had promised Kim during their first real date together at Chez Pierre.

Shego had lied.

XX

"Ron!"

Will Du and Agent Ullman came running up to him, along with a couple other agents not far behind.

"They took it," said Ron, nursing his head. Rufus scampered over his back and massaged his shoulders with tiny paws. "Hey, where were you?" he asked.

"Mm, dunno!" squeaked Rufus.

"Probably eating snacks from the hospital vending machines."

Judging by the silence from his mole rat friend, Ron guessed he wasn't far off.

The combination of the memory recovery induced by the helmet and the sharp smack into the pole were already beginning to give him a weird headache. At least he remembered he had that science homework to finish up soon. Will Du and his fellow agents seemed to be waiting for Ron to tell them where the helmet went; he pointed in the direction of the people who had pried the helmet away from him, but they had already vanished in the midst of the cars and trucks parked in the crowded lot. "They're long gone," he said.

"That is unfortunate," said Will Du. "We will have to-"

Du fell silent and looked up into the sky, along with his fellow agents and Ron. All of them were watching Drakken's hovercraft as it soared over the roof of the hospital, then over the parking lot. As it picked up speed over their heads, Ron caught a glimpse of Shego looking over the side. He was pretty sure she had a triumphant look on her face. He couldn't see Kim, but since she didn't seem to be anywhere in the lot, Ron had a good idea of what choice she had made. Even if it was for the sake of her covert mission with GJ, he couldn't help feeling disappointed.

"Was that Shego?"

Ron was about to answer Will Du before realizing it was a female voice which had spoken. He suddenly noticed Mrs. Possible standing next to him, and jumped in startled surprise. "Hey, Mrs. Dr. P," he said. "What are you doing out here?"

"I was in the middle of brain surgery," she said. "But there was an explosion at the hospital and a big fight, so we halted the operation temporarily. I assumed anyplace there's an explosion, there _must_ be a Ron Stoppable." She laughed at her comment. Ron joined her laughter, a little sheepishly.

"It wasn't _my_ explosion," he said.

"I'm not blaming you, Ron."

"But yeah, that was Shego up there."

"With my daughter?"

Ron nodded. "I think so."

Mrs. Possible gave a little sigh and patted Ron on the back. "Kimmie is going through some tough times," she said. "Just wait it out, Ron. She'll figure things out eventually. I have to get back to my brain surgery, but do me a favor and try not to blow up the hospital anymore, okay?"

"Yes, Mrs. Dr. P."

Kim's mother left them to head back to the hospital. Will Du gave her a curt nod before turning his attention to Ron. "Don't worry," he said, joining Ron as the two of them watched the hovercraft recede into the distance. "We'll get those two soon. We know where their lair is, and they still seem to trust Kim Possible. Dr. Director still wants to see if Shego switches sides, but I don't believe that will happen."

"Me neither," said Ron. That was one thing they could agree on. People like Shego didn't change.

"We have to return to GJ headquarters, look into those new enemies that attacked us, and find out who actually took the Memory Recovery Machine. Goodbye, Stoppable."

Ron nodded absently as Will Du and his fellow agents took their leave. By now, the hovercraft had disappeared beyond the tree line past the hospital, and Ron was left standing in the middle of the parking lot. A moment later, however, his caught sight of his synthodrone companion approaching him from the direction of the hospital. She was also watching the sky where the hovercraft had disappeared, a wistful expression across her normally bright face. Once it disappeared from view, she looked back at Ron.

"Where were you?" he asked.

"I was following some of the henchmen with the MRM," she said.

"Where's Kim?" asked Ron, although he already knew the answer.

Kimberly Anne nodded upwards, towards the sky.

"I'll guess you'll have to meet her later," he said.

The synthodrone nodded, and the two of them stood quietly together for a moment.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"Go back to my place, I guess."

Ron sighed as he and his companion left the main parking lot and headed for the employee lot in back where his scooter was parked. When he got there, it was knocked to the side in the hedges, looking a little bruised and battered – he frowned in irritation. Maybe the strange new ninja-like henchman had knocked it over when they ran through here. _Not so many ninja skills after all_, he thought. _Can't even dodge a scooter._

He got on the scooter, and Rufus jumped from his shoulder into the little attached basket. He felt Kimberly Anne's arms crossing over his waist again. He felt red hair tickling his neck, splayed across his shoulders as she clung on. It was just like Kim was there. Just like it used to be. Her face was just behind his own, her chin propped on his shoulder as she waited for him to wrestle the scooter to life and send them puttering along. He could almost fool himself into thinking – but no. Not quite. No matter how close it was, there was just something a little different. A little off.

Just before he was about to leave, Ron realized they had left a bit of a mess in the hospital. Those kids could still be waiting for their Pediatric Fun Squad, although from the looks of it, they had totally dug the unexpected battle they got instead of balloon animals and Rufus tricks. And the hospital staff probably had a few questions about that hole in the wall. But after that fight, he didn't really feel like going back to the hospital. He didn't feel like doing anything besides going home. He was confused and tired.

Ron wanted a shower, and maybe some reheated Bueno Nacho he had in the fridge – and then, a big nap. But more than anything else, he just wanted Kim to go back to normal.


	15. Aftermath

**Aftermath**

XX

After being attacked by herself, Kim hadn't exactly chosen to get on the hovercraft; Shego had picked her up and brought her on board. But Kim had made her choice before that. Just before the strange black-clad henchmen had arrived on the scene, she had been about to join Shego and Drakken. Shego had even been holding out a hand, ready to help Kim climb on. She remembered the look on Ron's face, before she went off to the back lot and met her synthodrone clone – Ron had looked disappointed. Today would have been their Halfaversary, she realized. She wondered what she would have gotten him if they were still together: a new game, maybe. Or a belt to hold up those pants. Thinking about Ron, about that look on his face, made her feel guilty.

Maybe it was a ruse, an act, part of her covert mission, but when she had made the choice to get on that hovercraft, it had felt like she was really picking sides. And yet Kim was beginning to feel like the only person on her side was _her_. She remembered the exultant grins on Drakken and Shego's faces as their hovercraft left Middleton Hospital in the dust, headed off in the direction of Drakken's lair. And now, here they were.

Here _she_ was, with the bad guys.

"I was glad to see you rejecting Global Justice, Kim Possible," said Drakken after parking the hovercraft in a small hangar recessed into the side of his rent-a-lair. Kim wondered why the two of them hadn't moved out yet; Drakken should have found a new lair by now. At least she would have _thought_ that would be the case. The hangar bay doors closed behind them as Drakken got out, and Kim joined Shego as the two of them followed him further into the lair. "The three of us will be unstoppable!" he ranted. "With me providing the brains, and you and Shego providing your amazon brawn, who can stand in our way? I would have liked to get that MRM machine, but no matter. Kim Possible is a much greater prize!"

Drakken looked back with a glance that was halfway between a happy smile and a leer.

"Hey," said Shego, "it's not like she's pledged to take over the world with us or anything. Let's not rush her."

"Very well," said Drakken. "A fair point. But still, Kim, you must realize that someone has to run the world, right? Do you think the United Nations knows what they're doing? Our government can't even find its way out of a paper bag, and Global Justice wouldn't be any better than your average supervillain, mark my words. Do you _really_ think you can trust them? They've only been using you, Kim – manipulating you!"

"What do you mean?" said Kim, a little defensively.

"Whenever you go on missions for them. You're just their tool!"

Kim was relieved; for a second, she thought Drakken had somehow realized she had been around all this time because she was keeping tabs on them trying to get Shego to switch sides. "Relatively speaking," continued Drakken, "I'm the best choice for world leadership, no doubt about it."

"Somehow I get the feeling you're a bit biased, Doctor D."

"Shego, you're supposed to be supporting me here! What do I pay you for?"

"Based on the size of my checks, about five hours of work a week."

"_Shego!_"

"Alright, already. Doctor D, you'd be utterly fantastic. I can't think of a better leader. _Sig heil_!"

"Much better, Shego."

Drakken, Kim noticed, seemed very enthusiastic, despite losing the Memory Recovery Machine to those mysterious henchmen clad in black garb and face masks, whoever they were. They were winding their way through the lair, passing the main control room, various storage areas and henchmen quarters, past Shego's room, and finally down an elevator, as Drakken gesticulated wildly. At first he didn't seem to know where he was going, at least until they reached the elevator.

"Where are we going?" said Kim.

"I'd like to show you some things I've been working on!"

Drakken seemed to be convinced that she had changed sides. By getting on the hovercraft, he thought Kim had ditched Ron Stoppable and Global Justice to join the bad guys. Kim didn't mind him thinking that, although she told herself it wasn't true. She felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The image of poor Dr. Langford, his invention stolen, and those kids, covered in plaster and dust from when Drakken and Shego broke into the children's ward, although admittedly the kids seemed to enjoy being spectators the fight. But she had let them down. Ditching the Pediatric Fun Squad on a whim to join her lover and her lover's megalomaniacal boss.

Maybe she was just horny. Maybe it really _was_ that simple.

"Don't mind him," said Shego as they reached a lower floor of the mountain lair, stepping out of the elevator and going down a dim hallway. She leaned in, lowering hr voice so Drakken couldn't hear them up ahead. "He has a point, though – we work great together. And as far as supervillains go, it could be a lot worse than Drakken. With you on our side, we could make sure he doesn't get too crazy."

Based on her tone, Kim got the feeling Shego was sensing her hesitancy. She could hear it in the way Shego was speaking, the way she was walking alongside her as Drakken trailed ahead, as if Shego was trying to reassure her. And Kim knew why; they both knew that Kim was not, in fact, on her side. Kim wasn't sure what to think anymore – after the way Global Justice had showed up out of the blue at the hospital, the way Will Du had such a bizarre interest in that Memory Recovery Machine, the way he didn't want her to put it on – they were hiding something, alright.

Seeing that synthodrone version of herself had been a shock, too. What was it doing with Ron? Was he _really_ using the synthodrone on missions instead of her? She wondered what else he might be doing with it, and while the thought squicked her out a little, she couldn't help thinking it probably wasn't true. The synthodrone had denied it, anyway. Ron didn't seem like quite as much of a perv as Shego. _Or me_, Kim thought ruefully. She had considered the synthodrone love-bot idea herself when she visited Cyrus Bortel, after all, even if it was only briefly. And it was Shego, not Ron, who had asked Bortel to create that thing in the first place.

It was also Shego who had told her the synthodrone was gone.

She began to feel manipulated. Global Justice had been using her for its own ends, and Shego had lied to her. She was being used. Kim had been aware of it for a while, of course - the way they had ditched that club in Go City, the attack on Dementor – her lover was trying to convert her. The attack on Dementor's lair the other day to get the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer, once she had thought about it, also seemed like a kind of test on Drakken's part. A way to ease Kim into his supervillain lifestyle by choosing a target she didn't object to attacking. And Kim was trying to convert Shego, of course. They were all playing the same game, and Kim was beginning to grow tired of it.

At the end of another dark hallway was a pair of bright lights, which were emanating from the circular windows of a pair of double doors. Drakken burst through the doors in a theatrical gesture. Kim and Shego joined him as they walked into a brightly-lit laboratory. A few henchmen – henchscientists? Kim wasn't sure – stood at lab tables here and there, some working on pieces of machinery, some jotting down notes as they walked between various parts of the lab. Drakken led Kim in the direction of what looked like a pile of junk scattered across a few wide tables in the middle of the lab. She could see a few recognizable pieces of potential supervillain weapons – one pointy piece looked like it could end up being the tip of a ray gun, like Drakken's old Transmogrification ray – but most of it was unrecognizable.

"What is it?" asked Kim.

Shego looked at the pile of junk, unimpressed. "Um, yeah. What she said."

"It's still in the prototype stages," said Drakken, "but I'm beginning to rebuild the Transliterator! It will be the ray gun to end all ray guns."

"Ugh, more ray-"

"Enough lip, Shego! As I was saying, I've decided to build this new one in pieces and assemble the entire thing later – that way it won't get stuck in one room where I can't wheel it out anywhere without disassembling it, like what happened with the Transmogrification Ray. I can't tell you how many times I've built a Doom Ray only to take it apart again once I realized I couldn't wheel it through any doors!"

"Doctor D is learning," said Shego. She whistled mockingly.

Drakken couldn't seem to decide on whether that was a compliment or not, and chose to ignore it. Kim looked over the various pieces – she could tell it would eventually be assembled into some kind of superweapon, now that she knew what Drakken was going for. She even noticed that one of the low tables on which a lot of junk was scattered seemed to be the pedestal on which the ray gun would be mounted. "It's smaller than it was last time," she said.

"You mean it's smaller than the old Transmogrification Ray? True. I thought I'd make it a little more compact. It saves a little money, and it would be easier to move through the lair, or take it outside entirely, without it being stuck in one room, as I said. By the way, Kim Possible, just for your benefit, I've made sure the Transliteration Ray is utterly harmless. I'm not sure what it will do yet – perhaps obliterate metal objects, like guns and military vehicles – but there will be no obliteration of people. Just for you!"

"You sure know the way to a girl's heart," Kim quipped sarcastically.

Drakken blushed and waved his little hand dismissively.

"I plan to power it with the Tunneler for the Utilization of Sub-Crustal Heat Induction and Energy. I've been tinkering with it, and I think it can be used to greatly amplify the power of an energy beam."

"You mean that thing you stole from Jack Hench?" asked Kim.

"That's right."

She looked around the pile of junk; from what she remembered, the Tunneler had looked like some kind of oversized conical drill bit attached to a big blocky machine. She didn't see anything like that in Drakken's pile of junk. "Where is it?" asked Shego, apparently noticing the same thing.

"Oh, I don't have it here."

Shego raised an eyebrow. "Where do you have it, then?"

"Elsewhere. It doesn't matter."

"And speaking of missing things, where's that Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer we stole?"

"It's around, Shego."

Shego seemed to think something Drakken had said was strange, but Kim couldn't help wondering why she and Drakken had been so keen on going to the hospital. She couldn't figure out how the Memory Recovery Machine could fit into creating some kind of Death Ray – or a totally non-fatal Minor Discomfort Ray, if Drakken was to be believed. "So why did you want the MRM?" she asked.

"Oh, that," said Drakken. "I would have liked to incorporate its technology into the Transliteration Ray once I figured out how it worked. I thought maybe I could reverse the helmet's processes and create a ray gun that would, in effect, wipe people's memories clean. Turn them into zombies, or add my own memories – that kind of thing."

"That's _way_ better than killing," said Kim sarcastically.

"What do I look like, Gandhi?"

"I got a few memories I'd like wiped," said Shego. "_Sibling_ memories."

"Well, either way, we'll have to find out who those obnoxious intruders were if we wanted to know where the MRM went," said Drakken. "Maybe Dementor updated his henchmen uniforms to black. I always thought his henchmen looked ridiculous in red and gray. Perhaps he stole the MRM as revenge for when we stole that PDVI from him."

"The what?"

"The Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer," said Drakken. "Get with the program, Possible."

Kim sometimes lost track of all the random junk Drakken was either inventing or stealing. Sometimes she couldn't help thinking the only thing stopping anyone from taking over the world was lack of proper planning and organization. If supervillains pooled up their various inventions, for instance, they'd have more than enough technological firepower to bend the world to their whims. Even Global Justice probably had enough to pack a punch, just from all the junk they confiscated from their enemies over time. They definitely seemed to like gadgets as much as Drakken did.

"So why did you want that?" asked Kim.

"The Vortex Inducer? I don't know, I thought the Ray Gun could induce vortexes instead of shooting rays. But I supposed that would be a threat to people's physical safety," said Drakken, rolling his eyes. "I'm willing to make some compromises now that you're on the team, Possible."

"How thoughtful."

"Hey, Doctor D," said Shego, "this is fascinating and all, but I think Kim might want a break. _We_ were the ones doing all the heavy lifting at that hospital fight, after all. We're gonna go upstairs."

"Very well," said Drakken. "I've got things to work on down here. As I said, I'm glad you've decided to join Team Drakken, Kim Possible – you won't regret it!"

"Team Drakken?" snapped Shego.

"Er, Team – our team. Team Drakken and Shego. Team Drego – no, Team Shakken!"

"Good God, could we _not_ have a team name at all?"

"Where're your team spirit, Shego?"

Shego turned away from Drakken, rolling her eyes in Kim's direction as she led them out of the laboratory and back to the elevator. Kim couldn't help smiling at Shego's reaction – Team Drakken definitely didn't seem like the kind of name that would strike her fancy.

"Hey, look," said Shego as they got out of the elevator on an upper floor, near the lounge, "Sorry about that whole synthodrone thing back there at the hospital. I wanted to get rid of it a long time ago, after you first saw it that one time in the lair, but it disabled its shutoff switch, and the whole situation was kinda weird, anyway. I mean, I felt weird about getting rid of it - the thing looks exactly like you."

"Yep," said Kim. "That's why you made it."

"Yeah."

"You lied to me about it, you know. You said you had already taken care of it before we started going out."

"I wasn't really lying!" said Shego. "I went to Bortel and tried to get the thing remotely terminated, but it must have overcome that, just like it disabled the shutoff switch on the back of its neck. I really thought it was gone!"

Kim wondered if Cyrus Bortel _had_ been lying - maybe the synthodrone version of herself had been working for Bortel this whole time. Then again, she wondered if her lover was just lying to her even more. Shego had told her at the restaurant, after all, that she was _sure_ the synthodrone was gone. And yet there it was in that parking lot, trying to throttle her. Kim could still feel the lingering pain where the fingers had pressed into the skin of her neck.

"Why didn't you destroy it?" she asked.

"You saw how good that thing is in a fight," said Shego.

"So you tried?"

Shego hesitated, and then shook her head. "It looks like you, Princess. It was just too weird. I didn't know what to do, so I just told it to leave. Look, I'm sorry, okay? I shouldn't have made the thing, but what's done is done. And I honestly thought Bortel had gotten rid of it – I wasn't trying to deceive you. We should be thinking about the future now."

Kim sighed. Maybe Shego was right – maybe she was being too hard on the woman. And yet she felt a lingering doubt that refused to go away. The two of them flopped down on a couch in the lair's lounge, in front of the television. Several henchmen were also in the lounge – a few them of them playing cards at a nearby table – but Shego glanced back and waved her hand dismissively to clear them out.

"Aw, man!" said one of them. "I was actually starting to win some of my money back!"

"Too bad, Sacke. This room's ours now. Scram."

From the looks of it, Drakken's henchmen knew better than to argue with Shego. They gave up their card game pretty fast; Kim looked back over the couch as the room cleared out, leaving just the two of them to sit together.

"Just wanted some privacy," Shego explained.

Kim watched the channels flipping as Shego clicked the remote. They went by so fast, she wondered how Shego could even see what was on each channel. Ron did that sometimes - but with Ron, it was just impatience. With Shego, it was almost like she just wanted something to do, something to distract herself. After their little talk about the synthodrone, there was definitely something in the air.

"Shego," said Kim, "let's talk."

"About what?"

"About you."

Shego groaned. "What about me, Princess?"

"I like you, Shego. I think it's obvious we like each other. But this thing between us – you really think it's going to work the way it is? I know Drakken thinks I'm on your side now, but you guys pulled that stunt at the hospital without even telling me. Where do you think this is going?"

"Why do you think about it so much?" asked Shego. "You don't have to be on our side, okay? Look, I think it's the best fit for you, and I think you're lying to yourself about this whole teen hero thing – you're like me. You don't want responsibility, you want freedom. You like doing what you want, when you wan to. You're way too independent to be living by other people's rules. But if you're gonna be in denial about that, fine - we still like each other. It's not like you have to help Drakken with all his schemes to have fun with me."

Kim wondered if Shego had a point, but at the same time, she began to feel manipulated again. It was like Shego recognized that Kim was on the fence. She was trying to temper her persuasion a little, trying to give Kim a way to stay compromised without committing all the way. But Kim didn't want to talk about herself. The more she thought about her own feelings, after all, the more she knew that there was a limit to how far she could go. A limit they had already reached.

"Shego," she said, "I don't think it's _me_ who's in denial."

"People in denial never think they're in denial, Kimmie."

"I've been like this my whole life, Shego. Do you know when I first started doing what I do?"

Shego shook her head.

"I had a website, when I was like twelve years old. I went to help some people who got trapped in this laser matrix they set up – it was a whole big thing – but the thrill I got out of that, it was amazing! It was just like the thrill you get from doing criminal stuff, from stealing and fighting and having things your way all the time. It was a rush."

"So you got bored of it?" said Shego. "Because I know you get a rush just from being around me. You like being the bad girl, Kim. Just face it."

"I didn't get bored of it. Maybe you're right, maybe I _have_ been getting a thrill out of everything we've been doing together. I won't deny I've been tempted by things lately. All of this is new to me. But it wasn't just the thrill - I started _helping_ people, Shego. I was really making a difference. Maybe I'm just a regular girl, but I learned all about heroes and villains and the things most people like to ignore, and I didn't want to ignore it. I wanted to fight it! And I know which side I'm on. I know what I value, and I know I want to help people. That goes deeper than anything else, Shego. That's who I am."

"Fine," said Shego. "I can live with that."

"I don't think that's enough," said Kim. "Like I said, you're in denial. You're not the bad girl you pretend to be."

"Oh, please."

"I was never a bad girl, Shego. I've been helping people since age twelve – and what did _you_ do in the past? You used to be part of a superhero team! You used to protect people who couldn't protect themselves, just like me! What happened to you? Why did you give that up? There's no way you can tell me a few cheap thrills beats that feeling you get from doing the right thing!"

"Crap, Kim, you're such a square."

Kim laughed. "That sounds like something Bonnie would say."

"Who's Bonnie?"

"Bonnie Rockwaller. A high school classmate of mine. She puts on an act, just like you."

"Oh, right," said Shego. "I remember her. She was in class when I was teaching at your school. She was kind of a bitch, wasn't she?"

Kim nodded. Now _that_ was something they could both agree on.

"Anyway, Princess, this is who I am. Deal with it."

"It's not who you are! Come on, you tell me about freedom and getting away from responsibility, but you call _this_ freedom? On the run from Global Justice, working for a guy like Drakken? You're an intelligent woman, you've got all this talent, and you're willing to put up with his ridiculous schemes – for what? You really want to rule the world? What would you even do if you were in charge? You'd be bored out of your mind! You're just not the type. You don't fool me, Shego."

"You're such a pain in the ass."

"I still haven't gotten anything out of you about your past – you hide everything. And after fighting with me for years, you had some synthodrone made to look like me so you could get your kicks without anyone knowing about it. You've got denial down to an art form. And why do you like me, Shego? You always act so apathetic, like everything is a joke to you – is this just a big joke? You know how obvious it is you're trying to hide yourself from-"

Shego darted forward, and for a moment, Kim wondered if she had made the woman angry. She tensed, expecting a blow, but found herself cut off by Shego's mouth searching against her own, tongue probing, jet-black lips pressed hungrily on hers. Shego was silencing her, overpowering her. Kim squirmed against the fabric as she was pressed back, feeling like an animal caught in the talons of a predator. Neither of them were big, but Shego was curvier, heavier. Her body was overpowering. Kim felt a surge of irresistible helplessness, a dull aching desire as she writhed in Shego's grip.

Shego's hands slipped underneath her shirt and ran up her body. Kim could feel the soft hair on her arms standing on end as soft fingers ran over them. Cool air - always a little frigid in lairs, she noticed - lapped against her bare skin as Shego pulled up her shirt, dragging the fabric up and over, mussing Kim's hair into a frizzy halo. She was still struggling, but not really. The hands went down, and she heard a faint snap as they unbuckled her belt.

"Shego, I-"

Kim managed to get a breath for a second, but the lips came back again, silencing her. She felt Shego's hands running over her breasts, down her legs, like her lover was enveloping her. Forcing the two of them to merge together. A hand ran up her thigh, and Kim gasped as it found its mark between her legs. She couldn't resist. Her feelings clashed together like debris in a hurricane. Anger, for the way Shego was shutting her up, the way she knew she was being used. Lust, for obvious reasons. A thrill – like so many others – at the mere thought of Shego's body, the touch of those restless fingers. The knowledge that they were in a common room, right in the open, where anyone could see them at any moment.

Kim knew she was being used. She knew Shego was pinning her down to stop all the questions, to stop thinking about herself, and it was working – Kim _wasn't_ asking any questions. She wasn't thinking about much of anything anymore, other than the feeling of warm skin brushing close against her body.

Beneath the lust, the hunger, there was a melancholy feeling that welled up inside. Shego wasn't listening. She wouldn't change. Kim's last-ditch attempt had failed, and she knew things between them weren't going to work. Now, she thought – here and now might be the last time they would enjoy each other this way.

But at least they were enjoying it.

XX

Beneath layers of clothing, buried in the back of the dresser drawer, she found a picture.

Kimberly Anne looked at the picture, recognizing her human model on one side and Ron Stoppable on the other. The real Kim Possible, enjoying a day at the beach as a young girl with her best friend. They did not look that much different as children than they did now, she thought. It was strange, the way humans worked. She had never been a child, but in some ways, she felt like she was a child. She had all the adult parts – Shego had made sure Bortel got _that_ right – except maybe for her brain.

She wondered if she even _had_ a brain. Unless she dissected herself, how could she know? She tried to feel her inner workings with her mind's eye, but it did not seem quite like a brain. What was a brain supposed to feel like? It was like she was composed of many layers. Branching off, folding, pulsing with different pleasant or unpleasant sensations. Some parts were getting more complex as she learned about the world around her. But some parts were still closed off to her. Were those the parts that would make her like a human?

She wondered if morality was part of what she was missing. Part of what made her different than Kim Possible, not human, what made her unworthy of Shego's love. Kim had told her in the parking lot that what she was doing was wrong. Of course, Kim would say that because she wanted to survive, but something about it had stuck with Kimberly Anne. Her human counterpart had told her she was being selfish. Not thinking about what Shego wanted, but what _she_ wanted. And yet, Shego would not care about that, would she? Why did Shego not appreciate her lack of morality? Her lover did not seem to have morality the way Kim Possible did, after all. The concept confused Kimberly Anne. The more she thought about it, the more undecided she became. What was the most logical thing to do? And why was she starting to feel strange about what she had tried to do to Kim Possible?

"Kim!"

She turned back from the dresser. Ron Stoppable's father, Dean, was standing at the door to his room.

"Hello, Mr. Stoppable!"

"I suppose I should call you Kimberly Anne," he said. "Ron said you prefer that name."

"It's less confusing," she said with a nod.

"How's it going? Ron seemed a little upset when you two got back this afternoon."

"He is a little upset," she agreed. "I think he and the real Kim are having trouble."

By this time, Ron's father knew she was a synthodrone. She heard heard the two of them downstairs one night, talking about her – maybe it was the night after the one when she first arrived at Ron's house. Talking about whether she could stay with them. Ron's father had been skeptical at first, but his son had convinced him. She was glad; she had nowhere else to go. This afternoon, when Shego left her in that hovercraft with the real Kim, that had been made very clear.

"Do you know where Ron is?" she asked.

"I think he's out in the treehouse."

"Thanks, Mr. Stoppable!"

"Not at all. I'm off to do some risk assessment."

Ron's father cracked his knuckles enthusiastically and disappeared down the hall.

She looked back at the picture of Kim and Ron playing together on the beach. They seemed very happy. Maybe _that_ was the problem with her and Shego. They didn't have that history together. Shego had existed long before she did, but for Kimberly Anne, Shego _was_ her existence. She was made to be with Shego, and ever since she had gained consciousness, other than a few brief moments with her creator in the beginning, she had spent all her time with Shego. Mostly having freaky sex, as her lover had called it once, but doing other things too. Just spending time together.

Maybe none of that was enough.

She put the picture back in its place beneath the clothing in the dresser drawer, and then sat down on the bed as she looked around the room. She had been looking through Ron's room, looking at anything that told her more about him, more about Kim Possible. She knew her creator wanted her to find out more about the boy in particular, and while she was more interested in Kim, she knew Ron was part of that equation. Shego liked Kim Possible, but Kim and Ron had known each other their whole lives. It was all part of the puzzle. Unfortunately, she did not know how to solve the puzzle. There were so many missing pieces. So much of it was alien to her. Humans were strange.

Outside, Ron was in the treehouse – she had visited the treehouse before. There was more information in the treehouse about Ron; it was like a snapshot of his childhood. She wondered why he was there now. He seemed sad after the hospital, seeing Kim go away on the hovercraft, just like she had been sad to see Shego going away. Maybe they could talk together. Ron Stoppable seemed like he had the same problem as her.

She got up from his bed and traveled through the house, passing by his father in the living room with a nod and a smile before going outside. She climbed up the tree, into the treehouse, where Ron was sitting on a couch, waiting. He was definitely sad, and his pet mole rat was with him, too. Owning pets – another thing about humans she did not understand. A naked mole rat was an atypical pet for a human, from what she had seen and read. But Ron was an atypical human. She gave him a smile and sat down with him.

"You want Kim back?" she asked Ron.

He nodded silently.

"It doesn't look like she wants you back."

"Yeah, I noticed. The more I think about it, the more I think things probably wouldn't have worked out between us, anyway. But it doesn't change how I feel."

"Why do you think she likes Shego?"

Ron shrugged absently. "Maybe I wasn't good enough for her."

She nodded, processing the information. "I'm not good enough for Shego, either," she said. "She doesn't want me when she can have a better me."

"You're being hard on yourself," said Ron. "You're pretty cool for a synthodrone."

"Thank you!"

Kimberly Anne was fairly sure that Ron would not be saying that if he knew she had tried to throttle his ex-girlfriend earlier, but she was still happy for the compliment.

Ron's pet mole rat, Rufus, looked at the two of them with a queasy expression, like it was listening to something very bizarre. She did not know what was bizarre about their conversation, but the mole rat seemed to be uncomfortable. It leaped down from Ron's shoulder and grabbed a bag of potato chips from the ground before heading to the treehouse's trap door. "Mm, see ya!" he said, waving a clawed hand before disappearing.

"I don't think Rufus likes drama," she said. "That's what you call this, right? Drama?"

"You got it."

"Do you think Kim is working with Shego now?"

Of course, Kim was working with Shego, but that was not what she meant. It was not clear whether Kim really liked Shego back, or whether it was part of a plan with that Global Justice organization that she and Ron had visited earlier that day. She wondered what Ron thought. If Kim Possible did _not_ really like Shego, maybe Kim would leave soon, and Shego would have no choice but to take her back instead. That was why Shego had brought Kimberly Anne into the lair in the first place, after all – because she could not have the real Kim.

Ron seemed to think about the question for a long time, but finally he answered.

"No. I don't think there's any chance with us anymore, but I don't think Kim is going to join Shego. I don't know how they can work things out between them, but I know KP. She's a good person. Maybe she's confused right now, but she wouldn't do what Drakken and Shego do."

"So you think she'll leave Shego?"

Ron made no attempt at a response.

"Do you think Shego will take me back if Kim leaves her?"

She looked at Ron, hoping to hear a yes, but instead, he shook his head.

"I don't think so," he said. "Like Shego said, I think she realizes it was a mistake to make you. It's kinda sick and wrong, when you think about it – I mean, I'm not saying _you're_ sick and wrong, just that the whole deal is. Making a replacement for someone you're attracted to. I remember Drakken saying Shego doesn't even like cloning, so she should have known better."

Ron was being blunt, but she sensed he was not trying to be mean. So he did not think Shego would take her back. As much as she loved Shego, she had heard her lover complaining about how much Drakken liked cloning before, sometimes during arguments they had in the lair. She could understand how Shego might see her existence as a mistake.

Kimberly Anne wished her feelings were different. She wished she could simply choose who she wanted to be with. It needed to be simple, logical: a list of pros and cons, so she could weigh the options and make the most rational choice. Ron, for instance, seemed like a more loyal partner than Shego was. She loved Shego, but she was still able to recognize that.

The real Kim seemed to have feelings for both Ron and Shego. Ron had just told her Shego didn't want a replacement, only the real thing – and she knew that was true – and yet Ron himself was going on missions with her instead of the real Kim Possible. Here they were, together, in the treehouse, after the real Kim had left him behind. Ron Stoppable and a replacement Kim. She was made to serve Shego, but if that was impossible, could she change how she felt? Could she redirect her feelings towards someone else?

She leaned forward, wanting to test something. She pulled Ron into a kiss.

"Whmphf – whaf are you doinf-"

She felt a burst of sensation course through her. Nothing positive, like she felt when she kissed Shego, when she was around her lover and they were together in bed – something darker. Defensive, angry, like she had felt when the man in the alley had approached her and she had to kill him. She felt her senses firing on all cylinders. Ron struggled against her grip. Her hands tensed; she resisted the urge to attack him. This was not going to work.

She eased her grip, and Ron pushed her away.

"What are you doing?"

Kimberly Anne frowned. The urge to hurt Ron died down.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I wanted to see what would happen."

Ron stared at her suspiciously.

"I thought maybe if we were together, Shego and Kim would be unnecessary."

Ron seemed to understand what she was trying to do, but he still looked like he was on the verge of jumping out the treehouse window. "I didn't mean to make you think I was replacing Kim or something," he said. "You and me, it – it wouldn't work. It'd be way too wrongsick."

She nodded. Her violent feelings had subsided, and she knew that Ron was right. After that kiss, she knew there was no way the two of them would work together. There was no way she would work together with anyone, in the long run. Not like that, anyway. She wanted Shego. She _needed_ Shego.

"I should leave," she said.

Ron looked quizzically at her. "You don't have to leave if you don't want to – I mean, it was just a mistake."

"Yes, but I think I need some time to myself."

"Well, I can't stop you. Are you okay?"

"Yes. I'm fine."

She did not feel fine; she felt very sad, and no closer to understanding how she could get back together with her lover. Ever since Shego had told her to go away, it was like she had nowhere to go. Going with Ron on missions was fun, but it did not fill the hole inside her. She was built to give someone love, to make them happy, and that person was not Ron. She was uprooted. She did not know where she belonged.

However, she had been sent by Cyrus Bortel to join Ron at his house, even if she had her own reasons for being there. She had done what _he_ wanted. She and Ron had gone on their missions, but Kimberly Anne's greater mission was complete. It had been complete for a little while, probably – Cyrus Bortel just wanted her to help him understand Ron Stoppable, much like she wanted to understand Kim Possible. And she was fairly sure she had enough for him. She had helped him, and now it was time to see if her creator could help her in return.

XX

Ron had been in the treehouse for a long time, thinking things over. Talking with Kimberly Anne had been pretty weird, especially when she tried to kiss him, but it had also been kind of enlightening, in a way. He had been thinking about KP. What her motivations were, how he felt about her. He was beginning to accept the fact that, as much as liked her, as much as he wanted her back, she wasn't going to come back – not as his girlfriend, anyway. He knew that part of their lives was over. Kim didn't like him that way, and he had to accept it. He had to move on.

Something else he knew, though, was that Kim wasn't a bad person. He didn't know how things would end up between her and Shego, whether it was some kind of weird lust that had overtaken Kim or something deeper, but he knew Kim wasn't going to the dark side. Maybe she was flirting with the wild side, just a little – maybe a gray side, at most – but the dakr side? It just wasn't in her. He had known KP all his life, and there was no way she was going to turn her back on her fundamental good nature. He didn't know where that left things between her and Shego – unless Shego got hit by another personality reversing blast, he didn't see how it could work out between them – but he knew Kim. And Kim Possible was no supervillain.

"Ronald!" said his father as he came back into the house. "Did you have a talk with Kimberly Anne?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Feeling any better? You seemed like you were in a bad mood when you got back from the hospital."

"A little. Just lady troubles."

"I know those, son. Why, I remember one time in college-"

Ron raised an eyebrow, and his father took the hint.

"Well, if you ever want to talk, I can give you some advice."

"Er, maybe later. I think I'm gonna go upstairs, actually."

"Suit yourself. Where's Kimberly Anne?"

"She left. She said she needed some time to herself or something."

"Hmm," said his father. "She seemed nice for a sythodrone, but I have to say I'm a little relieved. I came down here a few times for a late night snack and found her sitting there in the living room, completely silent. I don't think those synthodrones go to sleep at all."

"Yeah, I guess not. Maybe it's just like synthodrone standby mode."

Ron made his way upstairs. Now that Kimberly Anne was no longer around to talk about drama with him, Rufus would be more willing to hang out. Maybe the two of them could play a game or something – or Ron could actually do his homework, but seeing as he was recovering from a bad mood, that seemed like a bad idea. No, he thought, definitely some gameage. He was just about to open his door when he heard the Communicator beeping inside – he had left it in the room instead of taking it out into the treehouse with him.

"Mm, phone!" squeaked Rufus as he entered his room.

"I got it."

Ron picked up. It was Wade. He looked a little panicked, too.

"Ron! Be careful with the synthodrone. She's dangerous."

"What do you mean?"

"Kim tried calling earlier, but you weren't there. She said the synthodrone tried to choke her behind the back parking lot of the hospital until Shego interrupted her. It sounded like Kimberly Anne was trying to replace Kim so she could be with Shego. Pretty creepy – either way, I think we need to put a stop to those missions with her. Give me another minute and I'll get Global Justice over there to detain her."

Ron was shocked by the news, but Global Justice wouldn't be necessary.

"Uh, no point, dude. She's already gone."

"What?"

"Yeah, we had a talk in the treehouse. I don't think she had any plans on killing me – maybe she was just trying to get to Kim. But I asked her to leave, and she did." Wade's mention of GJ got Ron thinking. "Hold on a sec, Wade – didn't Global Justice tell us they scanned her and didn't see anything weird?"

"Um, yeah. They did."

"You think they were lying?"

Wade didn't answer.

"That whole situation with the MRM was pretty weird, too," he continued.

"You might be right. Maybe I won't call Global Justice just yet. Anyway, keep an eye out just in case anything else happens. And if Kimberly Anne comes back, call me."

"Can do."

Ron closed the connection and sat down his bed.

Wade's message was definitely a punch in the gut. Global Justice was getting creepy, but even stranger was the news about Kimberly Anne. Had she _really_ tried to kill Kim? He hadn't seen that coming. Suddenly her kiss seemed a little more unsettling, almost menacing; maybe the synthodrone was unstable, after being rejected by the person she was made to love. Ron wasn't quite sure what to think. Hearing about Kim's near brush with death was scary, to say the least, although he and Kim had had near brushes with death on a fairly regular basis. And somehow he still felt sorry for the synthodrone. She just didn't seem evil to him – maybe very confused.

Either way, it was a good thing he dodged _that_ bullet. He looked at Rufus and blew out a little sigh of exasperation. "Women, am I right?"

Rufus shrugged in response.

Technically, Kimberly Anne wasn't actually a woman, Ron reminded himself. But she was close enough.

XX

In his excitement over the events of the day, Drakken had been way too amped up to get to sleep. He tiptoed down a hallway from his bedroom until he reached the lair's kitchen, opening the refrigerator and rummaging inside for a late-night snack. Maybe some warm milk and cookies would help him get to sleep faster.

Drakken couldn't deny that he had been skeptical when Kim had first showed up at his lair with Shego – skeptical was the nicest way to put it, actually. His first thought was that Shego had completely lost her mind, followed shortly by the thought that maybe it was some kind of elaborate prank on him. But the two of them seemed to have some kind of genuine attraction to each other, and Shego had convinced him she was not about to turn into some kind of insufferable goody-two-shoes. Instead, Kim was going to join their side. He'd have two lovely ladies doing his bidding.

And after she had made a move to get on his hovercraft instead of joining that buffoon and Global Justice, well, as far as Drakken was concerned, that clinched it. Shego had been right. He shouldn't have doubted her. He had been setting up his new lair in the Rockies, surreptitiously transferring some of his equipment over there, starting with the stolen Hench Co Tunneler prototype, followed by the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer, anticipating the possibility that his number one henchwoman might turn on him. But Drakken should have had more faith in her.

He was just about to return to his room when, in the dim light of the hallway, he almost ran straight into Kim Possible. The two of them froze, although Drakken briefly fumbled to keep his glass of milk from dropping out of his hands. About half of it spilled on the floor, but he had enough left to drink.

"Kim Possible? What are you doing up at this time of night?"

Kim was silent.

"Did you want a late night snack, too? I have some milk in the fridge and cookies in the cupboard, although I must insist that as a new guest you take no more than two-"

"I'm leaving, Drakken."

Drakken paused.

"What?"

"I said I'm leaving. Thanks for the hospitality and all, but I need to go home."

"Oh, that's fine. Past your curfew, is it?"

Drakken didn't mean it as an insult, but fortunately, Kim didn't seem to take it that way. Instead, she shook her head. "No, I mean I'm leaving for good. I don't know what you thought when you guys took me with you on the hovercraft, but I'm not joining you guys. I'm not helping with any world domination schemes, and I'm _definitely_ not going to be your lackey."

_Maybe_, Drakken thought with a sinking feeling,_ I shouldn't have had so much faith in Shego. _

"Lackey is a little strong, don't you think? Once I rule the world, I can give you Canada. You may have to fight Shego for it, though."

"Nope. _So_ not happening. Did you really think I couldn't see through that whole thing with Dementor? You guys were taking me on a mission, trying to ease me into your lifestyle by having me steal from somebody who I saw as an enemy."

"Yes, but didn't it work in easing you into our lifestyle? It was pretty easy, after all!"

"Did you really think any of that was gonna work?"

"Well," said Drakken defensively, "There was a learning curve, but I thought we were making _some_ progress."

"I'll see you later."

Kim walked past him, heading towards the main entrance.

"What about you and Shego?" he said.

There was no answer. He watched as his former teen foe turned a corner and disappeared from view. Shego and the henchmen still seemed to be asleep, as far as he knew, and the lair was deathly quiet. Maybe she wasn't his former teen foe anymore. She had returned to current teen foe status. If she had ever really changed in the first place.

Drakken began to feel embarrassed; clearly, he had jumped the gun. He had made assumptions too quickly. When things seemed to be going well between Kim and Shego, Drakken had let his skepticism pass too easily. Thoughts of forming an unstoppable team with Shego and his former nemesis had clouded his judgment; the anticipation of ruling the world had made him overlook the obvious: Shego was blinded by her lesbian lust. Kim Possible wasn't going to change for her. The girl had way too much fun meddling with their schemes, being a thorn in their sides.

The next time Drakken would see her, she'd probably have Global Justice and that sidekick of hers backing her up. And if Kim was leaving, she and Shego had to be through. He wondered if Shego was going to join his teen foe. Drakken felt his eyelid twitch in irritation as he returned to his bedroom with his milk and cookies. He had been a little unfocused in his scheming lately, juggling half-formed plans in his mind, mainly due to the constant distraction of Shego's bizarre quarter-life crisis and his former enemy's constant presence in his lair. But he might have to start planning things more seriously.

It was starting to look like his secret second lair would be coming in handy after all.

XX

Half asleep, half awake. Shego had been tossing and turning all night, slipping in and out of unpleasant dreams; the residue of a strange afternoon with Kim. She should have been happy that Kim was with them, happy she had taken off on that hovercraft with them, but something about the way Kim was acting, the way she talked about her synthodrone copy and kept telling Shego she was lying to herself – it was obvious. Kim knew she had made a mistake. Even when they had gone to bed together, there was a rift, permanent and uncrossable.

Some of her dreams were about sex. About the two of them, writhing desperately on the couch, open and exposed, Kim giving in like she had resigned herself to it. It wasn't the same as it had been. Sometimes, Shego was naked in her dreams, but it wasn't sexual at all – it was terrifying. People stared, laughed, pointed, and they all knew. They knew more about her than _she_ did, and they knew she was weak. She couldn't escape from them. She couldn't escape from herself.

And then she woke up.

The room was dark, almost pitch black, and it took a few moments for her eyes to get adjusted to the darkness. She turned in her bed, reaching an arm across to touch Kim – but she felt nothing. Still blinking, trying to dispel the remains of dark dreams from her mind, Shego turned to find an empty spot on the bed beside her. The covers had been pulled up and flattened out, as if Kim didn't want to leave a mess before she left. And it only took a moment for Shego to know it was true. She knew exactly what those folded sheets meant: Kim was gone.

She turned, reaching for the lamp on her nightstand, although her eyes had already adjusted to the darkness, and blinked as the room flooded with its light. Now she could see the bed more clearly. Kim was gone – and in her place was a note written on a piece of stationery, folded and placed carefully on top of the pillow. Shego opened it and read it.

_Shego - _

_ We both know this isn't going to work. We keep trying to change each other, but we are who we are, and you won't even tell me who you are. After all this time, I don't even know your real name. That's totally weird, you know that? I care about you, but you've made it obvious you're not not willing to meet me halfway. If you really liked me, you'd realize that the whole goody-two-shoes act, the whole helping people thing? It's who I am. You have to accept the whole package._

_ I don't want to draw things out. I'm leaving tonight. Before I go, I should own up to something while I'm writing this: I was working with Global Justice. They wanted information on the two of you, and they wanted me to see if you'd switch sides, but I'm tired of working with them. I'm sorry I lied to you, but we were both trying to manipulate each other. Maybe you can see why we weren't getting anywhere. You can't build a relationship on lies. Maybe you weren't lying about the synthodrone, but you've been lying about everything else. We both have._

_ You and Drakken should clear out soon - Global Justice probably knows where your lair is. I figure they'll be coming once I tell them I'm done trying to get through to you. I don't know how it's going to work out in the future with me stopping Drakken's schemes, but just this once, I thought I'd warn you as a favor. Be seeing you._

_ Love, Princess._

Shego looked at the signature for a long time before dropping the note onto the bed. She sat for a moment, staring blankly at one of the walls of her room, painted deep green. Maybe it had been inevitable, but she still felt blindsided. It had seemed like Kimmie was considering a change of pace, like maybe the two of them could actually join forces, in more ways than one. Shego had really thought they had a chance.

The alarm clock on her nightstand read 4 AM. Shego knew she wouldn't be getting any sleep, but she still reached for the light and turned it off as she dropped like a stone back onto the bed, staring blankly up at the ceiling. She was in the mood for a little darkness.


	16. Loose Ends

**Loose Ends**

XX

The Memory Recovery Machine lay in Cyrus Bortel's scanning unit – an invention stolen at no cost from Hench Co now that he had free reign over the company. The helmet was locked down in the holding receptacle with a pair of metal arm-like restraints as a series of scanning beams and laser probes passed over it. Cyrus watched, fascinated, through a glass viewing window.

The machine looked a little bit like one of those popcorn poppers at the movies; not that Cyrus had been to a movie theater in a while. He was a busy man. Far too busy to engage in frivolous things like movie watching, although he had pirated a copy of _The Memo Pad_ online and had to admit he really enjoyed it. After a final burst of blips and bloops, the machine choked out a long sheet of perforated pages, printed with data and statistics about the MRM. Cyrus grabbed the papers and pored over them.

"Fascinating," he said aloud. "Yes, this will be very useful."

"What's that, boss?"

Cyrus looked up in surprise at one of his assistants, not having realized anyone was in the room with him. "It is nothing, nothing. I was just talking to myself a little."

He really needed to stop talking to himself out loud.

"So what are you going to use it for?" asked the assistant. "Recovering memory?"

"Of course not. What a ridiculous thing to do with a Memory Recovery Machine."

The assistant pursed his lips in confusion.

"I was being sarcastic," said Cyrus.

His assistant still looked lost. Cyrus sighed. "Hopefully it will be useful for recovering memories, yes. But it has many other potential uses. I am going to be using its technology for my own ends. For instance, if this helmet can recover one's memory, then, theoretically, a device could be made to wipe a person's memory clean. Think of all the applications!"

The assistant brightened up at the thought. "I get it – so, like, you could say something stupid, and then wipe everyone's memory so they don't remember what you just said, and then keep saying stuff until you say something smart!"

"Remind me again why I hired you?"

"Work credit for a class. You're not paying me."

"Ah, yes."

Cyrus frowned and turned back to the printouts with a sigh of resignation. His lab assistants weren't very useful. Now that he thought about it, he could have sworn he was going to phase out his human subordinates for increased security – apparently he had been to busy to notice a few pasty-face student workers from MIST still clocking in from time to time. He'd have to take care of that.

At least the henchmen he used for muscle had come in handy, although that wasn't surprising, considering he had created them with his own special synthodrone recipe. He had dumbed them down, not wanting to have subordinates who talked back too much, but they did the job. They had done a good job of grabbing the MRM for him, for instance. Right out of the hands of Global Justice and those meddlesome teens.

Soon, he thought, none of his fellow supervillains would want real live henchmen anymore. Jack Hench would be out of a job – well, he was already out of a job, seeing as he was currently down in the basement, locked away. Cyrus would have yet another lucrative business opportunity when it came to syntho-henchmen, something that Drakken could have done if he wasn't so absent-minded. Not that Cyrus would need to be worried about profits if he was supreme leader of earth. Thinking of Jack Hench made him smirk in anticipation. The man was still locked away down in the cells. He had been stubborn, unwilling to give away any knowledge on how to access Global Justice's super secret upper management level, or whatever it was, despite Cyrus's more painful attempts to persuade him. But this Memory Recovery Machine could determine whether or not Hench was taking him for a ride. Hopefully it could do some other things he had in mind, too. A few synthodrone improvements, so to speak.

"Mr. Bortel, sir?"

Cyrus looked up again, becoming irritated at the interruptions. This time it was not a human lab assistant, however, but one of his recently created synthodrone henchmen. "What is it?" he asked.

"You have a visitor."

The henchman stepped aside to reveal Kim Possible. Cyrus leaped back reflexively at the sight of the red-haired teen, dropping the printouts from his hand and almost toppling backwards into the scanning machine in which the MRM was still clamped.

Kim Possible! There was no way he'd be able to get away with anything now – she had come at _exactly_ the worst time! Not to mention that his visible overreaction had just given everything away. He tried to play it cool, but Cyrus knew the jig was up. Kim had him, for sure – and her little sidekick, that blond kid, wherever he was.

"I'm back!" said Kim.

"It is not what it looks like! That helmet in the scanning machine is just my mountain biking helmet. I was giving it a few upgrades for aerodynamic-"

Cyrus paused, giving Kim Possible a closer look. She had a ridiculous smile plastered on her face, but on the few occasions he had seen her before, the girl always seemed to have not so much a smile as that snarky smirk that teens were always wearing nowadays. It took him another moment to realize his embarrassing mistake.

"Oh, yes," he said, laughing. "The syntho-Kim. You're back!"

"Please call me Kimberly Anne," she said.

"Kimberly Anne?"

"It's the name I've chosen to give myself."

"Ah. Very well."

"I left Ron Stoppable. I didn't think there was anything I could get from being with him anymore, so I came back. Maybe it's too soon - you aren't angry, are you?"

"Angry? Of course not. I believe you will have enough information for me after all that time you spent with him. Please, join me in the synthodrone production center, will you?"

Kim – or Kimberly Anne - nodded happily and followed him out of the room.

In all the excitement over expanding his operations, growing some syntho-henchmen, and stealing the Memory Recovery Machine, Cyrus had almost forgotten about sending Kimberly Anne out to cozy up to Ron Stoppable. Now that he was reminded of it, however, he was happy she was back. He had hoped that Kim's sidekick would take the synthodrone under his wing due to some misplaced humanitarian feeling, or maybe just because he missed the real Kim – he had heard the two of them were on the outs when Drakken and Shego last visited his lair to get him to try to disable Kimberly Anne. Funny how things looped together like that.

The two of them went into the darkened halls of the production center, lined with their eerily glowing Gestation Vats. Once they reached the central hub that stood in a circular room linking several of the halls together, Cyrus motioned for Kimberly Anne to stand beside a control panel on the hub. A translucent tube was coiled up on a hook protruding from the panel. One end of the tube went into the hub – the other end terminated in a sharp, knife-like protrusion.

"This may sting a little," he told Kimberly Anne.

He stabbed sharply into her arm with the sharp end of the tube. It buried itself deep in her flesh, making her wince n pain, but in mere moments, the skin healed over the wound. The tube began to radiate with a faint, pulsing glow as information traveled from the synthodrone to his network. Cyrus smiled at the sight of the healing syntho-flesh – that little trick was not something he had programmed Kimberly Ann to have at first, but he had figured it out for subsequent synthodrones. Once she had returned from her time with Shego and joined forces with him, he had been happy to give her a couple of upgrades. It was nice to see this one working well.

"I was there when your synthodrone henchmen stole the Memory Recovery Machine," she said.

Bortel was surprised. "What?"

"Ron and I went to the hospital. I guess it was just a coincidence."

His synthodrones hadn't mentioned that. Maybe dumbing them down had its drawbacks. "Did they – does anyone know I stole it?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Hmm. Good."

"I tried to fight Kim, but it didn't work out. Shego rejected me again. Are you sure you can get Shego back for me?"

"Of course, Kimberly Anne. It will be no problem."

"How will we do it?"

"Leave that to me."

Kimberly Anne withdrew into her own mind for a moment, letting the translucent tube upload the data she had collected on Ron Stoppable into Cyrus's network. Hopefully it would come in handy. Cyrus, of course, hadn't really been giving any thought to how he would get Shego back for the synthodrone – he just needed to keep her on his side by promising it, but ultimately it was irrelevant to his plans.

"What will you do with the information?" asked Kim, temporarily flickering back into consciousness.

"What, on Ron Stoppable?"

She nodded.

"It does not matter," said Cyrus. "Let's just say I need to know what the boy was like. Now, if you'll excuse me," he said. "I must pay a visit to someone downstairs."

The synthodrone was too curious for her own good, but she seemed to accept his attempt to cut off the conversation. She nodded and went back to uploading her information. Cyrus left the synthodrone production center, making his way towards the elevators. Before he got there, however, he stopped at the Memory Recovery Machine, still locked inside the scanning unit, and looked lovingly at it. Dr. Langford had certainly come up with a promising idea.

The printouts had been fascinating – Cyrus knew he would be able to reverse engineer the helmet's inner workings before too long. Its most immediate use would be to get information on Global Justice from Jack Hench. Hopefully, it would not take long for Cyrus to create a removable media extension of some kind for the helmet, which would let him extract memories instead of just helping the wearer recall lost ones. Once he did that, Jack Hench would hold no secrets from him anymore.

But Cyrus had other ideas for the helmet, too. The fake Jack Hench – the synthodrone he had installed over at Hench Co to run things for him – had uploaded a remote report on how Ron Stoppable and that tech genius friend of his had almost stumbled on the truth. Fortunately, Ron had been foolish enough to rely on Kimberly Anne and Global Justice for their opinions, instead of trusting his gut instincts. Cyrus had almost been exposed, and all because Hench's secretary had caught a whiff of something off about the Hench-drone.

It was the same with Kimberly Anne. She was no Kim Possible. It was obvious even to Cyrus, and the real Km Possible was barely an acquaintance to him. Part of it was probably the fact that Kimberly Anne was sentient, and seemed to be forming her own personality – but part of it was just the difficulty of mimicking a person's personality, as opposed to physical appearance. The synthodrone wasn't a convincing replacement for people who knew the real Kim.

Hopefully, the MRM would help Cyrus address that little design problem.

XX

It was too bad it was the middle of the week, because Kim had spent most of the day in bed. She had been losing count of how many days of school she had missed. Mr. Barkin probably wasn't too happy.

Leaving Shego had been hard – even harder than she expected. She knew it was the right thing to do, after the way both of them had been lying to each other. The way they had been trying to manipulate each other into changing. That wasn't the way to start a relationship. And yet, despite how little Shego had opened up to her, Kim knew she cared about the woman who had once been her enemy. It was hard for her to imagine how they could go back to the way things were, arch rivals who never interacted except when it came to blows. Maybe it would be easier for Shego.

Initially, Kim had been drawn to the good looks, the animal magnetism, the way Shego sparked something she had never felt before; there was also the mystery and curiosity that came with the realization that an enemy had secretly been harboring feelings for her. Once they started going out together, she saw a kinder, gentler side to Shego. Relatively speaking, anyway. It had been promising, but it never went anywhere.

Kim had tried to grow closer only to have Shego push her away – but just the fact that they had tried to start a relationship was proof enough for Kim that that her old enemy was more than she let on. Maybe she was callous and amoral on the surface, but there was a depth beyond that, buried in her past, in inner thoughts that Kim had never heard her voice aloud. She was sad that she wouldn't get to dive into the real Shego.

But her little experiment was over. Now, it was time to fix her mistakes.

Kim got up from her bed and put on an outfit, glancing out her window and squinting a little at the sight of a sun dipping into the afternoon sky. She was embarrassed at how late she had slept, but after breaking up with Shego, she had needed some alone time to mope and wallow in the darkness of her room. If her parents had noticed anything amiss, they hadn't mentioned it. But then, she hadn't been talking to her parents much anymore. Just another one of those things she needed to fix.

She finished putting on her outfit and went downstairs. Her parents were in the living room, watching television. "Hey mom, hey dad," she said.

"Hello, Kimmie-cub."

The two of them looked at her for a moment before returning their attention to the television. Kim got the feeling they had dismissed her, expecting her to go out somewhere in a moment and be gone for hours, sometimes over a day at a time. She couldn't blame them. She _had_ been doing that, after all. It wasn't like they weren't used to her disappearing on missions, but they usually knew where she was, why she was going, and she was usually happy to share the details. With Shego, that had all been a lot different.

"I wanted to talk to you guys," she said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah."

She decided to make it quick.

"I broke up with Shego."

The sound of _Captain Constellation_ came from the television, which Kim had grown to recognize after being forced to watch it all the time with her father as a child. James picked up the remote, however, and turned the volume down as they gave their daughter their full attention. Kim couldn't help being a little amused at the way they were both trying to wear serious, emotionless faces, despite obviously being ecstatic over the news.

"When did this happen?"

"The other day," said Kim. "I just realized it wouldn't work out with her."

"Did she try to kill you?" asked her father.

"No, dad! Of course not."

"It's a reasonable question, Kimmie," said her mother.

"Well, sort of – I guess so. I mean, that's why I broke up. I thought she might change, or that I could convince her she'd be better off doing some good for the world instead of trying to take it over with Drakken all the time, but it was obvious we were just talking past each other. I don't think she's nearly as bad as she pretends to be, but I couldn't help her if she didn't want to help herself."

Her father motioned for her to come over and sit on the couch with them, and while Kim usually didn't like awkward heart-to-hearts with the folks, she decided to indulge him. She sat down between her parents, and her mother gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

"Kimmie, you know we don't have any problem with you questioning your sexuality, right?"

Kim blanched a little. Maybe things would get more awkward than she thought.

"That's right," her father added. "Honestly, I see it as kind of a good thing – you can't trust boys, after all. I don't have to worry about my Kimmie-cub making her life harder than it needs to be by having a little Possible when she's not ready. Although I guess Ronald would have been a decent father, as long as I didn't send him into deep space him in a fit of rage."

Kim raised an eyebrow.

"I'm just kidding. Kind of."

"I don't even _know_ if I'm only attracted to girls, dad. It's just – I don't know, I'm still just a little confused. All I know for sure is that I like Shego."

"Like?"

Kim shrugged. "Well, yeah. I still like her. That doesn't mean it can work."

"Well, the point is, when it comes to boys or girls, whatever you choose is fine with us - what worried us was that you chose _Shego_."

"Exactly," agreed her mother. "After all she's done to you and Ron!"

"She may have been a nice house-guest when we had her over while she was your substitute teacher, but that was a special exception. And even then, that green plasma of hers was _way_ too dangerous for this household."

"I know. Believe me, I know. But I can't choose who I'm attracted to, you know. It doesn't work that way."

"You're right," said her mother. "Kim, we're sorry if we weren't there for you – I guess you kind of caught your father and I by surprise. All the stories you told us in the past about Shego, all the times you and Ron barely got out of a sticky situation with her and Drakken – we may seem like we've gotten used to you being in danger, but that's not something you ever get used to, really. So when you had this sudden change of heart with Shego, we really didn't know how to react."

"It's alright, mom."

"So you're doing okay now?"

Kim nodded. She was _getting_ okay, at least.

"You know you can always talk to us about these things. We're here for you."

"I know. I actually have to go right now, though."

Her parents looked nervously at her. Kim laughed and held her hands up to ward off any questions. "No, no," she said. "I just wanted to stop by Ron's place and talk to him about this. I'm hoping I can patch things up with him and see if we could work things out again."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea, honey."

Her mother gave her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder, and Kim felt a pang of guilt when she saw the look on her face. She knew her mother had been happy to see her together with Ron, and she had probably interpreted Kim's comment to mean that the two of them would be getting back together. That wasn't what Kim meant, however. Things were over with Shego, but spending time with her had gotten Kim to really question her life up to that point. One thing she had realized was that her relationship with Ron had not been built to last, either. A friendship, yes, but not a relationship. She wanted them to go back to the way they were: best friends since Pre-K.

The only question was whether or not that was possible anymore.

"Hey, dad?" she said as she got up from the couch.

"Yes?"

"When I get back later, do you want to watch a little _Captain Constellation?_"

Her father grinned. She hadn't seen him so excited since that time he and the tweebs were in the back yard, racing custom remote-controlled cars powered by her father's J-200 rocket fuel.

"I'd love to, Kimmie-cub!"

XX

The treehouse brought back a lot of memories. It was hard to remember when, exactly, but Kim remembered watching as Ron and his father put the thing together. She remembered Ron insisting girls weren't supposed to help build things like treehouses. She had begged to differ, of course, and after a sore bump on the head, Ron had realized the error in his thinking.

She and Ron had spent a lot of time in the treehouse together over the years – she remembered the infamous Arnie Custer slingshot incident, that time Ron almost burned the whole tree down with his Fourth of July sparklers, and, of course, the moment when she had first began to wonder just what her relationship with Ron was all about. It was right before prom, she remembered. He had been sulking up there alone, obviously in a funk about the time she was spending with Eric. The conversation they had shared, the way Ron was so worked up, had gotten her thinking. Not long afterwards, she had invited him to prom after defeating Eric and foiling Drakken's Li'l Diablo scheme. And the rest was history.

Now, as she stared up at the treehouse, Kim felt like she was at a new stepping stone in her relationship with Ron; right now it was probably accurate to say they didn't _have_ a relationship of any kind, but depending on what the two of them decided, they could keep going on that route or try to rebuild. Try to bring things back to the way they were. Hopefully their friendship was not dead, but just in stasis. Things had been rough between them lately. If Ron was willing, they'd need time. It all depended on what he wanted.

"Hey, Ron!"

There was no answer, but Kim knew her friend was up there. She had seen some movement in the window, and now, looking up again, she noticed a telltale flash of pink. Probably Rufus on lookout. Kim stepped up to the base of the tree and climbed the ladder, hoping Ron didn't have his slingshot aimed at the floor entrance. Once she got to top and poked her head into the treehouse, she saw Ron was inside, sitting on the couch – and no pebbles bounced off her cranium. It was a good sign.

"Hey, Ron," she said. "What's up?"

"Oh, hey, KP. I guess I didn't hear you the first time you said 'Hey, Ron.'"

"Um, okay."

Kim stood awkwardly in the treehouse as she looked around at the décor. She had almost forgotten, but she wondered if a certain doppelganger was still hanging around. "You _did_ get my message about my synthodrone copy, right?"

"What, you mean how she's got a little choking hobby? Yeah. She actually left before I heard about that, so she didn't try to kill me or anything."

"Really? That's always good."

"Yeah, she seemed a little bummed out. I guess because she didn't kill you."

The two of them laughed awkwardly.

"So what was the deal with hanging out with that thing?" she asked, trying not to sound accusatory.

"It came to my house after Shego kicked it out of Drakken's lair. I think it was trying to learn about you, to be more like you so Shego would take it back – and since you were kind of, um, busy, me and Wade used her to go on some missions. But yeah, it got awkweird. Wade and I wanted to tell you, but we just didn't get around to it – we weren't sure how you'd react, anyway."

Fortunately, there didn't seem to be anything accusatory in Ron's tone when he mentioned her shirking missions to be with Shego, either. Kim knew he had a point – she _had_ been shirking her missions lately, and supervillains didn't defeat themselves. Then again, she had been doing a mission for Global Justice just by getting closer to Shego, even if Ron seemed to have trouble accepting that. Maybe because Ron, just like her, knew it had been a bit of an excuse to indulge herself.

Still, seeing Ron with her synthodrone clone had been a bit of a shock. She was glad to hear the synthodrone was gone, even if that meant it was still around _somewhere_. Ron hadn't destroyed it, which wasn't surprising, as the idea of destroying a synthodrone that walked and talked and acted like a human being was becoming increasingly weird. Even now that they knew how dangerous the syntho-Kim could be, could they really _destroy_ it? Had it even been right to destroy Eric? Kim decided she didn't want to grapple with thorny moral questions like that. Not when she was up here in the treehouse for another reason.

"You mind if we talk a little?" she asked.

Ron shrugged, trying to look nonchalant, although Kim had known him long enough to know that he was anything but nonchalant at that moment. Rufus, sitting on the couch beside him, stood up on his hind legs and crossed his arms as if barring her from taking a seat. Kim waited patiently for a moment until Ron nodded to his pet mole rat, who looked back at him as if to ask 'are you sure?' before shrugging and leaping away from the couch. Kim took a seat.

"What do you want to talk about," said Ron, his voice a monotone.

"Us."

A sort of awkward, stifling weight seemed to permeate every corner of the treehouse. Ron didn't look like he was particularly willing to talk about them, but Kim needed to get it out. Rufus, who sensed impending drama, scampered through the trap door and down the tree ladder. Probably deciding snacks were more fun than serious talks, thought Kim. She couldn't blame the little guy.

"I'm sorry, Ron."

Ron's attitude seemed to ease up, if only by the tiniest bit.

"Sorry about what?"

"About everything, I guess. I broke up with Shego – the way things were going, it just wasn't going to work out with the two of us. I shouldn't have given in to her when she came over that night, and I should have been more open about things with you. I just didn't know what to do with these feelings I had, you know?"

Ron nodded reluctantly.

"You don't have to worry about me turning into a bad guy or something, either."

"That's good. Wade was a little worried too - you should tell him. I mean, _I_ didn't really think you were gonna go to the dark side," he said, a little too quickly. "You didn't even like it when Marcella had beer at that party at her house in ninth grade."

Kim laughed at the memory.

"So you're really broken up with Shego?"

"Yeah, but – look, Ron, I don't want to give you the wrong idea. I wish things didn't end the way they did between us, but after everything that's happened, I've been thinking about things a lot. About us. About what I want. The thing is, I was happy when we were together, but things are different now. I know everybody says that, sorry. I'm in a different place now, and I have to work things out with myself."

"What are you trying to say, KP?"

Kim realized she was beating around the bush a little. She didn't want to be so blunt, but there was no avoiding it.

"I don't think a relationship between us can work."

Ron nodded slowly. Kim felt herself bracing for some kind of outburst, maybe a bitter comment or a slump of resignation in Ron's shoulders that would set fresh waves of guilt through her. She wasn't very good with any of this. Being in a relationship with her best friend, having it crumble, and then having to tell him she wasn't interested in him romantically – there was no easy way to handle it, she decided. Fighting supervillains was a lot easier than this stuff. Fortunately, to her surprise, Ron seemed to be taking it pretty well.

"I guess I know what you mean," he said. "I've been thinking about it, too. Things did get a little bit complicated when we were together – maybe we _do_ work together best as best friends."

"Yeah."

"I guess I didn't give you much of a chance to explain things after I caught you with Shego, either. Wade tried to tell me she broke in and you just kind of got sucked into it, but I didn't want to listen. And then when you started doing that undercover mission with her – I know you were trying to get Shego to switch sides, but it just felt like you had backstabbed me-"

"You're right, Ron. I'm sorry. The undercover mission was a bad idea, too. I felt like Global Justice was just using me – and then that whole weird deal with the Memory Recovery Machine? I don't know how much I trust them anymore, honestly."

"I know, right? They _are_ a little on the creepy side."

Kim gave Ron a smile, which, for the first time in a long time, he returned without hesitating.

"So," she said. "Friends? I know everybody says that, but it's true. I'd really like us to be friends."

Ron seemed to consider the question, which disappointed Kim a little, but she knew she might not get an answer as easily as she had hoped for. "I'm not gonna lie, KP," he said, finally. "I feel like it's gonna take me a little while to get back to where we were. But yeah, I do want to be friends with you. I mean, I can't really imagine the two of us not being friends, can you? And how would we do missions together?"

"I know, right?"

Kim, realizing she had echoed what Ron had said moments earlier, laughed at her comment, although she was laughing more from relief. Ron was being honest, at least, and the two of them were talking. She knew it would take some time to move on, but Ron was being more mature than he had been in a while. As for her, well – she was still confused, like things had been upended, but this was the first step towards setting things right again.

"So what are you doing this afternoon?" asked Ron.

"Actually, I have to visit Global Justice."

Ron laughed. Kim joined him, seeing as they had just been talking about how creepy the were starting to find GJ. Kim wasn't quite sure what she was going to do when she got there, but she needed to have a talk with Dr. Director. She still hadn't gotten in contact with them after she broke things off with Shego, after all. It was one loose end that needed some tying.

XX

"Dr. Director, ma'am?"

Betty looked up from her desk as Will Du poked his head into her office. She acted annoyed by the interruption, mostly because acting annoyed at interruptions was sort of a requirement for being head honcho at Global Justice's Middleton facilities, but she wasn't actually all that annoyed. A stressful meeting was coming up, and she was happy for the interruption.

"What is it, Agent Du?"

"You have a visitor."

"And which visitor would that be, specifically?"

"Kim Possible."

_The teen hero_, Betty thought. It was about time.

"Send her in," she said.

They had been trying to get in contact with Kim ever since that fiasco with the Memory Recovery Machine being stolen by unidentified assailants, but the girl had been making herself hard to reach. Quite frankly, Betty was beginning to think the girl was unreliable. She had always pegged Ron Stoppable as being the erratic one - that was part of the Ron Factor, after all - but she supposed things changed sometimes. After all, that was what she was banking on when it came to Shego. Hopefully Kim would have an update on that situation, although Betty was getting the feeling that things with Kim were not going well in general.

"Kim Possible," she said as the teen hero stepped into her office. "Thank you for stopping by – we've been having some trouble raising you lately. Any updates on the Shego conversion mission?"

"Yup," said Kim. "I'm quitting."

The words lingered in the air for a moment, before settling down heavily in the room's silence.

"What?"

"The mission was a bad idea. I don't like lying and pretending to be somebody I'm not, and I decided I couldn't do it anymore. Shego's a lost cause, anyway. She's not going to give up her lifestyle and turn into some Global Justice flunky, if that's what you were counting on."

Betty gave no reaction, at least not outwardly, but she was disappointed by Kim's change of heart. Possible had never been an actual agent – too much of a wild card for that – but she was always a useful ally. She seemed to be flippant about quitting, too, as if she was angry about it. She didn't know why Kim was so angry, seeing as they both knew full well that Kim had gotten some pleasure out of her mission. _More_ than just some pleasure, probably. It wasn't like they had brainwashed her into doing it. "I'm sorry to hear you're quitting the mission," she said. "I thought we had a chance with Shego."

"I thought so, too."

"Nevertheless, it was worth a try. Global Justice values your cooperation, and there will always be future missions. I have a couple of them on the table right now, in case you're interested."

Kim shook her head. "I'm thinking not. I'm not so sure about our working relationship, actually."

_This_ was a development Betty did not want to hear.

She picked up a pen, tapping it against the desk as she looked Kim over with her one good eye. The girl definitely seemed a little irritated. Maybe the mission had taken more of a personal toll on Kim than Betty had expected. Maybe they had stepped over the line. Or maybe the fiasco with the MRM had made Kim suspicious – according to Will Du's unusually vague report, it sounded as if their timing had been very bad.

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

"What was the sitch with that Memory Recovery Machine?"

And there it was. Despite her training, Betty felt her stoic demeanor falter for a split second.

"The sitch? I don't know what you're talking about. It's a machine that could be used for nefarious purposes if a supervillain got their hands on it. We were concerned when we heard Dr. Langford had completed it."

"It seemed like you didn't want _me_ to get my hands on it."

She definitely seemed to be on to something, thought Betty. Kim had not taken a seat ever since she walked into the office, and she stood across from the desk with an aggressive look. Maybe it wasn't the best reaction, but Betty couldn't help breaking into a smirk. She could see why Kim and Shego had taken a liking to each other – the psych files weren't just psychobabble, after all. They both had a certain aggressive, lippy streak.

"You're in a relationship with Shego," she said. "Which meant that Drakken had easy access to you. We were simply worried about the man getting access to the device, and we thought the easiest way to avoid that was to take it from the hospital before either of them got to it. And, to be honest with you, Kim, we were beginning to be a little worried about your own loyalties, when you started failing to respond to our calls. We wanted you to convert Shego, but for all we knew, Shego was being very persuasive."

"I'm - I'm not in a relationship with Shego anymore."

Betty nodded. Maybe _that_ was why the mission had ended so abruptly.

"Look," said Kim, "either way, I'm not interested in working with Global Justice anymore. You guys have been starting to weird me out a little. I don't work well in teams, anyway, unless you're talking about Ron – I like to do things _my_ way. So stay out of my hair."

Betty ignored the comment, which was on the verge of being a threat.

"I am sorry to hear it. Our door is always open if you need any help with your missions."

Kim ignored her and left the little office, leaving Betty to contemplate the change of events.

She had not been expecting such an abrupt cut between Kim Possible and Global Justice. This made things more complicated, and she wasn't looking forward to announcing it at her upcoming meeting. Kim Possible had been her greatest human asset, more competent and versatile than Will Du – even if Will would never admit to that – and now she was gone. Admittedly, Betty knew she shouldn't be so surprised; GJ knew Kim was a wild card, and maybe this mission with Shego had been too much of a gamble. But things were changing, and fast.

"Ma'am," said Will Du, poking his head into the room again, "just a reminder, but you have a meeting."

"Yes, I know. Thank you, Agent Du."

Betty closed the solitaire game she had been playing on her computer before Kim had arrived, which she had been using to kill a little time before her meeting. She got up from her desk, leaving the office and making her way through the halls of the subterranean facility in the direction of the main elevators. Her agents nodded curtly to her as she passed. Despite the pressures of responsibility, despite all the formalities and bureaucracy from which she sometimes longed to escape – part of the reason she had a certain fascination with Kim Possible, she supposed, who reminded Betty of herself at a younger age – she liked being in charge.

She had the power of a huge organization backing her. People gave her respect, which she never got from her family, particularly that good-for-nothing brother of hers. And she knew someone needed to wield power. The world was a messy place, getting messier by the day, and someone had to take the reins and fight back. Kim Possible would have been a valuable tool in her arsenal. A tool she had just lost, if Kim was serious about breaking ties with GJ and not just venting some raw emotions after whatever had happened between her and Shego.

Once Betty reached the elevator and stepped inside, she didn't press a floor button. Instead, she typed a brief command code into the control pad above the buttons. The elevator door slid shut, and with a brief wobble, it began to descend farther into the depths of the GJ facility. She was headed to the bottom floor, where meetings with the BOSS were held. It wasn't often that Betty had to talk to the Board of Secret Shareholders – most of the meetings she attended were run-of-the-mill ones with her agents – but today, one of the big meetings was scheduled. They had been increasing in frequency, as of late.

The door slid open. Betty stepped into a small, dimly lit room. A few feet away from the elevator doors stood a polished wooden podium, where she could place her notes. Beyond that, a few raised steps led to a long, semicircular desk which surrounded the podium and looked down it. The Shareholders sat in their places at the desk, their gazes pointed slightly downwards at Betty as she stood in front of the podium.

They weren't the real Shareholders, of course – just holographic projections. A single light illuminated the podium itself, but the Shareholders were bathed in shadow, beyond the light's reach. As usual, all Betty could see were their dim outlines. Even their voices seemed to be electronically altered in order to add to their anonymity, their inaccessibility. When it came to their meetings, they really loved theatrics. Betty also got the impression they were trying to be intimidating.

But not much intimidated her anymore.

"Welcome," said the Head Shareholder.

"Thank you, sir."

Right now, the semicircular desk was populated by the Head Shareholder and two of his colleagues. Sometimes Betty met with more of them, and sometimes she met with only the Head Shareholder himself. The number of them in attendance seemed to vary, depending on the meeting. "Any updates on the Lorwardians?" he asked.

"No, sir. Still no movement towards earth."

"Good. What about the situation with Kim Possible?"

"I just met with her, actually. She said she wanted to quit working with us."

The Shareholders turned to confer with each other, mumbling vaguely in the darkness. The Head Shareholder, his head a gloomy outline with no face, turned back. "That's unfortunate news," he said. "We're very disappointed in you."

"I apologize. I thought we had the situation under control, but her mission with Shego must have been too emotionally taxing. We also had some problems with a recent mission with a Memory Recovery Machine we were trying to secure from a scientist working with Middleton Hospital. We were worried Kim Possible might get her hands on it and inadvertently bring back memories of her procedures."

"Where is the machine now?"

"We're not sure. It was stolen by unknown assailants. We're working on the problem."

"This is not good news, Betty. Should we be worried?"

"I'm sorry, sir. The workload has been heavy lately. We didn't have a lot of time to-"

"Enough excuses."

Betty fell silent. The shareholders stared – at least, she got the distinct impression they were staring. Since they were shrouded in darkness, there were only blank, formless voids where their facial features should have been.

"Kim Possible might be a liability," one of them said to the Head Shareholder.

"Yes," he said, his voice strangely menacing despite the electronic altering.

Betty also nodded in agreement. She couldn't help catching a certain implication in the Head Shareholder's agreement with his colleagues – she got the distinct impression that, even though they agreed in principle, the Head Shareholder might have a different idea on how to deal with 'liabilities'. Betty liked Kim, and she thought liabilities could always be turned into assets. But with the Board? You never knew.

The more she thought about it, the more Betty wondered if Global Justice had been taking the wrong route by banking so much on teen heroes. Kim Possible had been an interesting experiment, after all, but the problem with human beings was that they always had their own ideas. They always wanted to do their own thing, and that was only good when they were acting rational at all – who could count on any consistency in Ron Stoppable's actions, for instance? Even a well-trained, by-the-book agent like Will Du had free will, although sometimes one could be fooled at first glance. Humans were only human.

But after seeing what Drakken and Bortel had done with their synthodrones, Betty felt like the rate of technological progress had almost unlimited promise. Global Justice had always enjoyed its gadgets, but with examples like Eric and the syntho-Kim to go by – Kimberly Anne, or whatever her name was - Betty could almost smell the scent of revolution in the air. Maybe she had been barking up the wrong tree all along. In the upcoming battles against man and alien, which she knew would soon be coming, Betty needed help wherever she could get it.

Global Justice needed discipline. It needed unity. Kim Possible, as powerful as she was, could not be loyal in the end. After their tests on Kim Possible's synthodrone clone, however, Betty had been nursing the first seeds of a new idea. Drakken had already used them for henchmen before, and the technology seemed greatly improved. Bortel just didn't think big enough – using them for sex toys and mail order companions? Ridiculous. But there was potential. If she wanted something better than human, Betty had a good idea of just where to look.


	17. Birds of a Feather

**Birds of a Feather**

XX

There would be no more moping. It was time to man up. Or woman up, to be more specific.

Shego's day at Upperton had been productive – the town was rich, but not quite as high-visibility as a place like Go City. A bag of money was slung over her shoulder, from the bank robbery she had pulled off earlier. It had been a sort of test, after a lot of moping and aimlessness after Princess left. A test to see just how much she loved what she did, how much it played into who she was. To see whether or not she was _really_ a bad girl. Or whether, as Kim said, it was all an act.

Robbing the bank had given her a rush, just like she always got when she flaunted the rules of society. No doubt about that. She hadn't suddenly lost her edge, or gone soft, God forbid. She liked taking what she wanted – she liked sticking it to a system that, as far as she was concerned, was just as amoral as she was, except more in denial about it. There was no getting around it.

But there was something else she had noticed after breaking open that vault, running out of those doors with a sack of money bouncing off her back. Something more important than the rush: She got a bigger rush from Kim.

Being with Kim Possible was like a bank robbery every day.

Shego entered the temporary lair where she and Drakken had been staying ever since their old mountain lair had been blown up after the syntho-Kim incident. Inside, Drakken was waiting for her. "It's about time you got back!" he said, munching on a bag of potato chips. "Where have you been off to, Shego?"

"Out. Thinking over some stuff."

"What's that on your shoulder?"

"Bag of money."

"Oh," said Drakken, eagerly approaching her. "How thoughtful, Shego! I _have_ been in need of some extra funding lately."

Drakken tried to grab at the bag, but Shego took a step back and shot him an angry glare. "Excuse me, Doctor D, but this is _my_ money. What have you been up to all day, anyway? You know you gotta move out of this lair pretty soon. It's not like it's that hard to find, and the only reason we didn't get busted by Global Justice already is because Kimmie was working for them. If you keep dawdling, you'll be back in the slammer again."

"Relax, Shego. We'll be perfectly fine. Besides, maybe Kim Possible left you, but you still corrupted her. She won't be bothering us anymore. You really think she'd try to lock you up after the two of you spent all that time sharing your deepest, innermost feelings? And pillow fights, I presume."

Shego grimaced a little, wondering just how much Doctor D had been fantasizing about her and Kim while the two of them had been together. It was her own fault, really – if she wanted more privacy, living in her boss's lair wasn't the best way to get it. "You're being naïve," she said. "As long as you're in the business, she'll be bothering you."

"Why do you keep saying 'you'? We're in this together, Shego."

Shego was silent, and Drakken's face slowly dropped into a frown as he began to pick up on something wrong. The bank robbery had a been a test, and as far as she was concerned, it had made it very clear; she wanted Kim. Even more than she wanted a life of crime. Even more than she wanted to take over the world – and even before Kim changed everything, Shego hadn't really been interested in that as much as she just enjoyed being along for the ride. Once she failed the test, Shego knew the robbery was kind of like going out with a bang. A last exclamation point to years of laughing in the face of the law, before she turned off on a new path. Her silence seemed to be enough for Drakken to realize what she was thinking.

"You're leaving?"

Shego nodded.

"Why?"

She didn't even hesitate. "Kim Possible."

Drakken's frown soured into something more angry than sad. She knew he wasn't angry at her so much as he was thinking about Kim Possible. Unfortunately for her boss, she hadn't managed to corrupt their teen foe – their teen foe had corrupted _her_. She wondered if her boss was open to changing, too. "Maybe _you_ should give it up," she suggested.

"What, the carefree life of evil?"

"Um, yeah."

It was obvious that Drakken wasn't into the idea. She wasn't really surprised. Even for her, the idea of changing her ways seemed daunting; it was hard to imagine how she was going to give up on the way she had lived for years. It seemed like it was giving up a kind of freedom. Maybe Drakken had tested lower on the evil meter, but what he lacked in evil, he made up for in stubbornness and single-minded obsession. It would be hard for him to give up the idea of world domination.

He couldn't play with incredibly dangerous and foolhardy supervillain contraptions, for instance – and more than that, she got the feeling that, for Drakken, giving up on supervillainy would be like admitting his inadequacy. Still, she sometimes wondered how someone could put themselves through so much punishment, so much continual failure. Giving up supervillainy might be like admitting failure to him, but he failed enough as it was. Didn't that take the shine off any enjoyment he got from being a bad guy?

"Honestly, Doctor D, you've been off your game ever since the Li'l Diablo scheme. It's like you're afraid to take any chances – Transmogrifiers? Transliterators? You really think more ray guns and lasers are going to do anything? Don't you think, at some point, after your best schemes don't work against a couple of teenagers, you should think about finally hanging up the towel?"

"Shego, sticks and stones may break my bones, but your words are like really big stones!"

"That's not how the-"

"You've let Kim Possible corrupt you with the allure of being a sassy teen hero, Shego. But I don't _want_ to be a sassy teen hero! I don't want to sleep with them, either! Mark my words – if you follow in her footsteps, you'll be bored out of your mind in about a week."

Shego narrowed her eyes. Obviously, trying to convince Drakken of anything was going to be a lost cause. Not only that, but she still felt unsure of her own path – after Kim had left, Shego had felt totally lost. Only today had she made the decision to start changing, and she didn't want her decision attacked. She didn't want Drakken convincing her to stay. She had to put her foot down on one side or the other. She left the main room and entered the hallway leading her bedroom in the living quarters of Drakken's lair, only to hear Drakken trailing along behind her.

"Where are you going?" her boss asked.

"To my room."

"Why?"

"To pack."

"To pack what?"

Shego dropped the bag of money and whirled around at Drakken, who shrank back reflexively.

"To pack my stuff, Doctor D! I told you, I'm _quitting!_"

Although he was momentarily silenced, afraid of Shego's outburst, Drakken's expression began to change. Shego was shocked – and a little disgusted – to see her boss giving her what looked like a puppy dog pout. What a lame attempt at sympathy. Kim Possible's face came to mind. The puppy dog pout looked better on her, for sure, and Shego was almost certain the girl had used it on her once or twice during their brief relationship. There was no way Shego could resist a look like that, coming from that sultry little redhead.

"Shego," said Drakken, pleading, "why are you quitting?"

"I can't do this anymore, okay? It's been fun while it lasted, but you and I both know we're never actually going to take over the world. And you know, have you actually given any thought to what you would do once you took it over? What's the point, exactly? What do you want the world for?"

Drakken stammered. "I – well, I – I just want it! You could have a personal chef to make you extra chocolaty Cocoa Moo, for instance, and you wouldn't have to pay him a single cent."

Shego stared incredulously.

"Cocoa Moo? That's your post-domination plan? _Cocoa Moo?_"

Drakken shrank back again. "You put me on the spot, Shego! Give me time to write down a wish list, at least!"

"Oh, lord."

Shego resumed her walk to her room, opening the door and throwing the money bag on her bed before turning to the closet and opening it up. She had a few outfits in there, although sometimes she felt like she never got out of her green and black harlequin suit. In the future, maybe, she'd have a little more freedom when it came to fashion choices. One more perk of quitting her job with Drakken. She had to stay positive, after all.

"Shego, forget about the Transliterator. We can try something else, we can-"

"It's too late, Drakken. I don't want to do this anymore. I need to change, and I gotta fix things with Kim."

Shego pulled a few outfits from her closet along with a duffel bag. Drakken watched her as she stuffed everything into the bag. She didn't have many personal possessions, so there wasn't much to pack. She'd be taking the hovercraft – technically it was Drakken's property, but over time, the two of them had reached a sort of strange mutual agreement that the hovercraft was her property. At least that was how it worked in Shego's mind.

"You _really_ think Kim Possible will take you back?"

"No idea."

"How do you know she's not back with the buffoon?"

Shego didn't know, but she was hoping against hope that that wasn't the case. A part of her wanted to go right to Kim's house, to apologize, to tell her she had seen the error of her ways and renounce her old self, that she was new and improved and just as white bread as Kim - but she knew it wouldn't be that easy. Kim probably needed time to herself, after all. They both needed a little distance, at least for the moment. And in the meantime, Shego needed to deal with herself. The bank robbery had brought her desire for Kim sharply into focus, reminding her that having Kim was like no other pleasure, but it had also shown her she couldn't change in an instant. It would take effort.

"But what about _us,_ Shego?"

Drakken's question hung in the air, unanswered.

Shego finished packing her duffel bag and slung it over one shoulder, still carrying her bag of money over the other. She turned back to her bedroom door, where Drakken was standing and sputtering, trying to find something to say that would keep her from leaving. It was abrupt, she knew – she was being a little hard on her boss, who, all things considered, had given her a pretty fun time – but she had to be decisive. She had to take action before she second-guessed herself, before she decided it was too hard to change herself. There was no way she could go back to the way things were, her only contact with Kim coming in kicks and punches. Kim had told her, flat out, that she wouldn't do the supervillain thing. She wouldn't do what Shego did.

And that left Shego to do the changing.

"Sorry, Doctor D," she said as she passed through the door, leaving Drakken to stare at her back. Before she left for the hangar bay where they kept the hovercraft, however, she turned back and gave her old employer a single peck on the cheek. It wasn't much to make up for her abrupt departure, but it was something, at least. Drakken looked confused, and then sad. He knew it was a goodbye.

"I'll miss you. But I have to go."

XX

The tower loomed up from its rocky island perch. Two monolithic letters, joined as one, gazed out across Go Lake as they guarded against the forces of evil lurking within Go City. She had arrived at her destination.

This was home. Kind of.

Back in the day, when Shego had spent more time living in the city with her brothers, she always thought most of the evil came from Chinese takeout places, which tended to leave her on the toilet for half an hour at a time. But if you asked her brothers, the true evildoers were the criminals. Criminals and occasional foes like Aviarius, who were really just criminals with delusions of grandeur and access to a tight-fitting spandex outfit. Even when she had been a hero, Shego's outlook had been different from her brothers: a little more skeptical, perhaps. But now it was time to turn back the clock. She had to beat a new path in life, or at least cut back to her old path, before Drakken, and try to find a way to tolerate it. Because that was what Kim wanted.

Shego sighed and placed her hand on the door scanner. Shockingly, the door opened. Even after all these years, her brothers had apparently made no attempt to lock her out. If she didn't know any better, she would think it was from the hope that she would one day return. But since she knew Hego, she knew it was probably just because he had forgotten to change the door security after she left long ago.

"Anybody home?" she shouted, her voice echoing in the vaulted entry of the tower.

There was no answer.

She made her way through her old home until she reached what Hego liked to call the "War Room" - basically, the place where they had occasionally talked to the mayor, but mostly ate dinner at the round table in the center of the room and listened to Hego's stories of strength and daring. Hego, of course, was always the center of attention. That could be seen just by the fact that most of Go Tower was decorated in various hues of blue.

She remembered they used to play cards together at the table from time to time when they had no crime to fight; Hego and Mego were both pains in the ass when they played cards. When Hego won, according to him, it was due to his unbeatable ability to read people's bluffs. When Mego lost, it was because the other players had all been counting cards. Her brothers' claims made even less sense when one considered the fact that they had never played card games where bluffing or card counting was even possible.

Today, Shego noticed, playing cards was exactly what her brothers were doing.

"Go fish!" shouted the Wegos in unison.

"Why don't you go fish yourself!" said Mego, flinging his cards across the table. "You're taking us for a ride!"

"Now, little brother," said Hego, placing a comforting hand on Mego's shoulder only to have it shaken off immediately, "let's all get along. How many times have I told the three of you, Go Fish is all about teamwork and good-"

Shego waited patiently in the doorway, money bag slung over one shoulder and duffel bag of clothing and personal stuff over the other, until her brothers noticed her. The four of them turned, one by one, as they became aware of their new guest. There was a stretch of silence, for what seemed like forever, before Hego got up from the round table and took a step towards his sister.

"Shego," he said. "What are you – what brings you to Go Tower?"

She dropped her bags to the ground, tired of carrying them.

"I'm moving back in."

There was another moment of silence, as if her brothers were trying to read her expression – figure out whether or not she was playing some kind of joke on them – but then, in what seemed like a snap in the room's mood, Hego and the two Wegos rushed forward from the table, taking Shego by surprise before she could react. They crowded around her, pulling her into a loving embrace which was way too awkward for Shego's tastes. She tried to stand still as she felt her siblings smothering her.

"Shego!" said Hego, his voice cracking. "You finally decided to come back!"

"We missed you, sis!"

She waited patently until her brothers were finished with their outpouring of emotion. Hego and the Wegos stepped back as they finally released her. Hego, she noticed, had a single tear glistening in his eye, which he hastily wiped away as he tried to pull himself back into his usual ridiculously macho composure. Mego had not stepped away from the table, although he was standing up now. Maybe she was imagining it, but Shego wondered if she caught a hint of a smile from him. It was hard to tell with Mego. He had never quite grown out of his bitter, snarky teenage phase, although Shego supposed she couldn't talk. She had a bit of the same problem sometimes.

"What made you decide to come back?" asked Mego, still standing beside the table.

"It's kind of a long story," she said. "I'd like to give the whole hero thing another try, though."

"I heard you were shacking up with Kim Possible."

Shego felt herself freeze up a little at Mego's accusation. Not that it wasn't totally true or anything. Judging by the way Hego and the twins looked awkwardly at each other, Hego giving a little cough as he glanced disapprovingly back at his brother, they all seemed to know as well. How did her _brothers_ know? Did everything supervillains do get traded around as gossip by anyone who was involved in the business at all? She supposed her brothers _were_ kind of gossipy. They always talked about Aviarius' personal life, for instance. And it wasn't like she and Kim had been keeping things all that secret, either.

"Yes, I was," said Shego. "And I like her, so deal with it."

Hego cleared his throat and placed a reassuring hand on Shego's back. Like Mego, she felt an overwhelming urge to wriggle away from it, but she decided to let him indulge his silly brotherly instincts if it made them all warm up to her a little. "Little sister," he said, "I won't pretend to understand the perverted desires of girl on girl lust, but as long as you don't share any details with us, I won't object. Your relationship with Kim is okay by me – she's a good influence, after all."

"We broke up."

"_Dammit!_"

Hego's outburst caught Shego by surprise.

"Er, sorry. I just thought that meant you were going back to the dark side – but wait, then why are you here? Did she change you for the better? Is lesbianism really such a force for good? Maybe we should all look into becoming lesbians!"

It was obvious that Hego was letting his thoughts get ahead of him, as he pursed his lips upon realizing he wasn't making any sense. Shego rolled her eyes. "Yeah, she changed me. Something like that."

"Well, either way - welcome back, little sister."

"Yeah," said the Wegos. "This is awesome! Finally somebody to tell Hego and Mego to shut up when they won't stop arguing with each other!"

Hego frowned. "We don't argue, we discuss."

"You don't need to use your superpowers to get each other in a headlock when you're in a discussion."

Shego nodded in agreement with her twin brothers. "They've got you there, Hego."

"Fine, fine. Shego, would you like to join us for a game of Go Fish?"

The very thought of playing cards with her brothers set her nerves on edge, as if she had her hand too close to a burning stove top, but Shego knew this was what she had come home for. If Kim wanted her to be more of a do-gooder, to change her ways and renounce her life as Drakken's partner in crime, she had to embrace her old life. Annoying brothers were part and parcel of that bargain.

She nodded in resignation, about to join them at the table, when the massive communications screen which hung at the other end of the room overlooking the table began to light up. Someone was giving them a call. Why her brothers still hadn't removed a security risk as huge as a remotely-accessible viewing screen in their War Room, Shego had no idea. But at least this could be more interesting than cards. Sure enough, she recognized the face of Go City's mayor, Bill Vito, flicker onto the screen, with the word "Mayor" printed in big block letters beneath it.

"Team Go," said the mayor. "Go City needth your athistance!"

Hego rushed forward to the table and brushed the playing cards aside, apparently not wanting to look like he was nearly as lazy as he actually was. He then threw the Mayor some kind of ridiculous personalized salute. Shego felt herself holding back the urge to vomit. "Mr. Mayor," he said. "What do you need? Is it the Mathter?"

"No – it'th Aviariuth! Our avian enemy has rethently ethcaped from prithon, and-" The Mayor suddenly did a double take, peering into Go Tower's War Room. "Wait, who'th that? Thego?"

"I'm sorry, who?"

"Thego. Right there next to you."

"We don't have a team member named Thego, Mr. Mayor," said Hego. "That was only the name we gave to our receptionist, and she quit three years ago after the shower incident, remember?"

"No, your thister!"

The mayor pointed insistently. Her brother turned and gave an _ooh!_ of understanding.

"I'm rejoining the team," said Shego. "I'll help them out with Aviarius. Should be fun."

"Rejoining the team? I'm tho glad to hear that. Did Kim Pothible turn you to the thide of good?"

"You know about that too?"

"Everyone knowth about that, Thego."

"Ugh! No, we broke up, okay? But I'm trying out the whole goody-two-shoes crap again."

"Ecthellent," said Mr. Mayor. "Aviariuth mutht be dealth with quickly. He'th robbing a bank right now, in the busineth dithtrict!"

"We're on it, Mr. Mayor!"

The screen shut down, reverting to blackness, as Shego's brothers gathered around each other. They were in their superhero suits – Shego wondered if they ever changed clothes, although she wore her own suit so often, she knew she didn't have much room to criticize. They stared at her in unison. Shego began to wonder what was going on until she realized she had almost forgotten about the little pep circle Hego sometimes insisted on doing before their outings, when he was in a particularly enthusiastic mood.

_Ugh_, she thought. _This again._

"Team spirit, Shego!"

"Yeah, yeah."

She joined the circle and linked hands with her brothers as Hego began to pump them up with what he imagined was a rousing speech. If she was coming back, maybe she could put a stop to stuff like _this_, at least. And in the meantime, fighting Aviarius would be a nice change of pace. She had been on that bank robbery herself earlier, so stopping a bank robbery now might help ease her transition into being a good guy. It was almost poetic, really. Her new beginning as good guy could mirror her end as a bad guy.

Kim had tried things her way. Now Shego was going to try things Kim's way.

XX

"Stop right there, fiend! You won't be getting away with the hard earned money of Go City's citizens!"

Hego stood at the bank's doorway, arms crossed in a heroic gesture that was clearly meant to catch the attention of anyone who happened to be looking his way. His considerable bulk was blocking the bank's doors so that Shego and her younger brothers had to wait outside on steps leading up to the entrance. She could see Aviarius through the full-length windows that made up the facade of the bank, and she caught him giving her a bug-eyed glance. Apparently, everyone was surprised she was back.

"You won't stop me this time, Hego!" screeched Aviarius. "Even with your more talented sister back on Team Go!"

Shego couldn't help snorting with amusement, a sound her brother Mego echoed. Hego definitely didn't seem to take very kindly to the comment, and while Aviarius's whole avian schtick was beyond ridiculous, she had to give him props for knowing just how to get under her big brother's skin sometimes. She was a little embarrassed that, back in the day, fighting Aviarius had sparked some of her initial interest in the perks of supervillainy. How she could have ever found his style intriguing was beyond her.

"Just hand over the cash, Aviarius! Why don't you get a _real_ job?"

"This _is_ my job. I put forty hours a week into this stuff!"

Hego scoffed condescendingly. "Everyone knows the forty hour work week is a thing of the past. In today's day and age, corporate overtime is a given!"

The bank fell silent, everyone nonplussed by his strange comment.

"What?" he said. "I read it in a business magazine!"

Aviarius backed farther into the bank as Hego strode in from the door, finally leaving enough room at the entrance for Shego and her brothers to step through and get ready for a fight. Their foe had tossed aside several bags of money, preparing to do battle, and the marble floor of the bank was littered with people lying prone, hands over their heads. Judging by a few blast marks on the bank's walls, Shego guessed that Aviarius had lobbed some energy blasts from that magical talon-shaped hand extension she noticed him wearing. _Always with the animal themes_, she thought. Even Monkey Fist had an air of menace, at least.

"Very well," said Aviarius. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get! I'll take pleasure in stopping the Gos!"

"Laaame," said Mego.

"Oh, as if any of you have room to talk with all the bird jokes!"

"Enough chatting," said Hego. "Don't be a chicken."

"_Rrrrgh!_"

Confirming Shego's assumption, Aviarius lobbed a blast of energy from his hand talon, narrowly missing her older brother. She had to duck as it passed by Hego's bulk and almost smacked her in the face; instead, it hit the glass front window of the bank and blew it out as the sound of shattering glass rang through the air. Hego rushed forward to attack, tossing a table aside with ease as he charged his opponent. Even when he was fighting, Shego couldn't help suspecting that half the things he did were done for show. Did he _really_ need to toss that table aside? Wouldn't it have been faster to just shift about a foot to the right?

"Come help me, my pet!"

Aviarius shouted his plea just before Hego lunged at him. He barely dodged out of the way. Hego crashed to the floor in a heap, almost landing directly on top of an unfortunate customer who was lying prone. The other customers began to get up, screaming in fright and milling around in confusion as Hego and Aviarius came at each other again. Aviarius, however, was trying to avoid too much direct conflict, as he didn't stand a chance against Hego when it came to brute force.

"Guys," said Shego to Mego and her twin brothers, "help everybody get out of the bank safely."

"Gotcha, sis!"

The Wegos ushered customers towards the door, Mego joining in more reluctantly. It wasn't too often that they joined in on the actual fights – much of the time, Hego hogged the glory, with Shego pulling some weight when her brother got in over his head or made a stupid mistake. She fanned out, hoping to cut Aviarius off in a kind of pincer movement with her older brother after he stopped grappling with his foe. Just as they were about to corner Aviarius, however, the pet he had been shouting for earlier emerged from farther in the bank.

Shego felt her eyes bugging out. His pet eagle, a sack cloth filled with bills hanging from its beak, came waddling out from a hallway which presumably led to the bank's vault. The eagle stared at the fight raging before it and flapped its wings angrily.

"That's right, my pet! Let's get out of here!"

The eagle dropped the money and charged towards Hego, who took a surprised step back. Aviarius was just about to leap on his eagle's back when Shego sent a sizzling blast of green plasma energy their way, catching the eagle in the beak as it leaned over to offer its back to its owner. The eagle screeched, enraged by the heat, and began to flap around the bank's lobby, knocking over furniture and potted plants as it tore through the room and smacked against the ceiling repeatedly, knocking broken chunks of roof paneling down on the lobby.

"Hego, duck!"

Hego didn't duck fast enough. The eagle tripped over him, bowling him over. It made its way to the front entrance of the bank just as Shego's little brothers were leading the last customers out to safety – with a burst of glass, it forced itself through the remaining unbroken windows and clambered out onto the bank's front steps, lifting off into the air and screeching as it still tried to shake the lingering effects of Shego's energy blast away from its face.

"Coward!" said Aviarius. "Come back!"

Hego got up and dusted ceiling debris off his body.

"Looks like your sidekick flew the coop, Aviarius!"

"I truly hate you."

Hego flexed his muscles, about to resume the fight, but Shego darted forward and blocked him. "Hold on," she said. "Let me handle this."

Her brother didn't look pleased, but after a brief pause, he nodded.

"Sure, sis. It's your first day back, after all."

Shego rolled her eyes and turned to Aviarius, who seemed to be much more concerned at facing her than he had been about going up against Hego. She felt the familiar heat of her strange powers prickling her fingers, almost as if it was an independent force, something that anticipated her fights. In an instant, she sharpened her concentration like a knife and brought the flames out, sending dual blasts of green fire racing towards Aviarius. He managed to dodge them, but lost his footing in the process, crashing into a teller's desk.

Shego closed in just as he got up, meeting him with a flurry of slashes. Aviarius fought back, blocking her blows, but within moments, she knew there was no chance. A few well-placed punches, a solid kick to the chest, and Aviarius was down again. He scrambled backwards across the floor. Shego stalked him, like a predator sensing its prey was hobbled, with nowhere to go. Before they clashed again, Aviarius held his hands up in supplication.

"Okay, okay!" he said. "I give up!"

"Good job, Shego."

Hego slapped her on the back obnoxiously before stepping forward and pulling Aviarius up by the scruff of his neck. He looked around the bank with a grin, even though there was no one left besides his sister and brothers to appreciate his heroic antics, and flashed a beaming smile. "Looks like this bird is ready for his cage!"

Aviarius sighed, obviously too tired to complain about Hego's usual catch phrase. But he then cast a glance at Shego. Something about his look seemed disappointed – not in himself, but in her.

"So you're a hero again?" he asked her.

Shego nodded. "Guess so."

Aviarius looked confused.

"Why?"

At that moment, the blaring squeal of police sirens drew closer to the bank. Through the broken glass windows, Shego could see several Go City police cars pulling up to the bottom of the bank's front steps. A number of officers got out and rushed up to the front entrance – Shego was surprised to notice mayor Bill Vito trailing behind them. The officers crowded into the lobby and handcuffed Aviarus as the mayor stepped in and nodded to his superhero team.

"Exthellent job, Team Go!"

Shego groaned at the sight of reporters coming up the steps behind the last of the officers, holding microphones and television cameras. She knew why the police were there – they always showed up after the fact, to try to take some credit after Team Go did the heavy lifting – but why were _reporters_ here? Crime and supervillainy were so commonplace in Go City, she didn't know why they were bothering. As they approached, she realized they were there for her.

"Shego!" said one of the reporters. "GCTV here, we heard you were back with Team Go!"

"Any comments for the Go City Tribune?" asked another. "Are the lesbian three-way rumors true?"

"Three-way? What?"

"You, Kim Possible, and Britina!"

Shego was flabbergasted at the ridiculousness of the question. Before she could respond, the mayor pulled her into a friendly embrace, along with Hego, and motioned for the other Go brothers to join them. "Everyone," he said as he held Shego uncomfortably close, "pleathe, let'th give Thego some thpace. By the way, Team Go, I'd like to invite you all to a thpecial thelebratory gala at my private ethtate, in honor of a newly united Team Go!"

Hego shook the Mayor's hand, beaming as cameras flashed in their faces.

"It would be an honor, Mr. Mayor!"

This, Shego remembered, was one reason she disliked her experience with Team Go so much. Go City's press corps, which seems to be mostly tabloids, was a little ridiculous, even for a city of its size. Her brother was happy to play up to them, and the mayor had always been a pain about it.

The fight with Aviarius had been disappointing, too. Was he _always_ that weak? She knew he had only recently broken out of prison, and they had caught him in a bank instead of in a booby-trapped lair, but it seemed anticlimactic. Maybe she was too used to fighting Kim Possible. With Aviarius as the most deadly of Team Go's old foes, she knew it would be disappointing if she held up their usual crop of criminals to Princess's standard of combat ability.

But the cameras flashed, and Shego forced herself to wear a thin smile as she went along with it. If she wanted Kim back, she had to do this. She had to take the bad with the good.

XX

"And in there, of course, is my synthodrone production center. But you have already seen that."

Cyrus Bortel motioned briefly in the direction of the doorway, but Betty wasn't satisfied with just a passing glance. She hadn't seen it before, after all – back when Kim Possible had uncovered Bortel's synthodrone production operation and asked Global Justice to put a stop to it, she had been too busy to visit the place personally. She couldn't be on the scene for every op, after all. Will Du had gone in her stead, given her the report, and she had made the decision to leave Bortel alone, as he wasn't much of a threat.

Now, however, things seemed different. Betty had paid Bortel an unannounced visit, hoping to talk business, but something about his place seemed suspicious. It was harder to arrive at his labs than she had expected from the information in GJ's system, and the place seemed larger than the information had suggested, too. Maybe Bortel's mail order synthodrone business was becoming very successful, and he was doing a little renovation and expansion. But still, something about it seemed off.

"Do you mind if I take a look at your synthodrone production center?" she asked.

"Of course not."

The two of them went into the synthodrone production center. Although Will Du had given her the full report, seeing it firsthand was different. The hallway stretched inwards to some kind of central hub, and it was lined on either side by dual rows of translucent glass cylinders filled with liquid that glowed an eerie greenish hue. A line of fluorescent lighting ran across the top of the ceiling, but it was faint, only meant for direction – like the lights in the aisles of a movie theater. Despite the fluorescent lighting and the glow from the tubes, the hallway was very dark.

"So what brings you to my lair, Dr. Director?"

Betty did not respond at first. She looked over the rows of liquid-filled tubes lining the walls. Some were empty, but some sheltered synthodrones – a few of them half-formed, Betty noticed as she wrinkled her nose. It was just like Agent Du had given her in his report. She hadn't brought any of her agents along for her clandestine meeting, mainly because she wanted to talk about something with Bortel that might not be popular among the rank and file of Global Justice. Nobody liked being replaced. She didn't even know if the Board of Secret Supervisors would approve of her idea, but times were changing. Their organization had to keep up. The Lorwardians sure weren't going to give them a break, after all.

"I was wondering what kinds of uses your synthodrones had," she said. "I assume they could be used for purposes other than sexual gratification?"

Bortel laughed. "They can. Why do you ask?"

"I might be looking to buy. I am aware that Drakken used his models for henchmen."

"Yes, that is correct. Mine make very good henchmen. Better than Drakken's inferior models."

Betty gave her host a brief, suspicious glance. The way he had agreed with her so enthusiastically made it seem as if he had some personal experience using his synthodrones as henchmen – and yet, she could just be overthinking it. Maybe he was just agreeing so quickly because she was a potential customer, after all. She hadn't seen any henchmen in his laboratories, or anyone else besides Bortel himself, really. Like most borderline mad scientists – or just flat out crazy ones - the man liked to work alone.

"They used to take a long time to develop, if they had personalities" said the scientist as the two of them looked at his synthodrones. "I had to nurture them, like children. But I have been making great improvements to their speed of gestation lately. And if I am making one without much of a personality, it is not as slow – not as complex, you see. Their personalities are constructed and uploaded as they gestate in the Gestation Vats."

"Do they have a brain?"

"Not exactly," said Bortel. "They are made of a kind of syntho-goo. Drakken's formula was very fragile, but I have made various changes, so that a simple puncture will not destroy them. The syntho-goo can congeal and even solidify, as it does to create artificial skin and bone and offer resistance to blows. The brain, if you wish to call it that, is imprinted throughout the cells of the goo. The synthodrone is like a single, thinking mass."

"Interesting. What's the goo made from?"

"It is a trade secret. But you could, theoretically, make it from everyday ingredients. Anything you could buy in a Smarty Mart, for instance."

Betty nodded. Although she had been to Smarty Marts before, and they had an amazing amount of merchandise, so calling their wares 'everyday items' was perhaps misleading. She stared into the containment chambers, observing the nude figures inside. Although some were warped, half-formed, most looked like human beings. A few of them, she noticed, even twitched occasionally, as if they were deep in slumber.

"No brains," she said, musing aloud. "So cutting off its head won't kill it?"

"No," laughed Bortel. "I suppose not. This is not _Zombie Mayhem._"

Betty had no idea what he was referencing, but she didn't care. She stopped in front of one vat. Inside was a figure which looked strangely familiar. Most of the synthodrones were curled up a little, and the greenish-tinted water was somewhat opaque, making it hard to see details, but the more she looked, the more she couldn't mistake it for anyone else.

That sandy blond hair, those freckles-

"Who is this one supposed to look like?"

Bortel looked into the tube briefly, then shrugged in a show of indifference. "No one in particular," he said. "I experiment with different looks sometimes. It is good practice."

"They're like my brothers and sisters!"

The two of them turned at the sound of the voice. Betty was surprised to see Kim Possible standing a few feet away from them, near the central hub. Almost immediately, however, she corrected herself. It wasn't the real Kim Possible, of course – there was no reason she would be here. It was her synthodrone clone. Which answered Betty's question about where the synthodrone had gone, after Wade called her the other day and informed her it was no longer with Ron Stoppable and had tried to kill Kim Possible.

"Hello, Kimberly Anne."

"Hello, Dr. Director!"

The three of them stood quietly for a moment. Bortel seemed uncomfortable, as if he hadn't quite expected the syntho-Kim to show up just then. She wondered what it was doing in his laboratory. It was no longer with Ron, no longer with Shego – so now it was back with its creator? Things definitely seemed to be getting fishy. Betty was beginning to think maybe she had jumped the gun on her secret meeting.

"So what exactly happened between you and Ron?" she asked the synthodrone, curious.

"I decided it was best for me to leave."

"And you're back with your creator, huh?"

The synthodrone nodded idly, but it was a little distracted. It peered into one of the Gestation Vats, as Bortel had called them – the one which contained the figure Betty had thought she recognized earlier. Betty caught a flicker of recognition in the synthodrone's artificial eyes, too.

"I helped my creator make this one," it said. "He looks just like the real Ron."

_That_ wasn't good.

Betty began to edge towards the entrance of the synthodrone production center. Something was definitely up. Bortel's shifty behavior, the expanded facility, the syntho-Kim's odd appearance, and now, a synthodrone modeled after Kim Possible's sidekick? She cursed silently, realizing she should have been suspicious a lot earlier. She had taken GJ's long relationship with Bortel for granted, but it was starting to look like Bortel had taken a turn to full supervillainy. And maybe Betty had just found her answer as to where those mysterious black-clad henchmen in the Middleton Hospital parking lot had come from.

As if in answer to her suspicion, several burly figures appeared in the door of the production center before Betty could escape. She was really starting to regret not bringing any agents along with her. Bortel had looked nervous at the syntho-Kim's unexpected appearance in the synthodrone production center earlier, but now that Betty was blocked off in the hallway between Bortel, the syntho-Kim, and the henchmen on the other side, the man's lips curled into a smile.

"I must say," he said, "I was a little caught off guard by your arrival at my lair. You caught me at a busy time. I considered letting you go, if you did not seem suspicious, but I am afraid you have seen too much at this point. And this is as good a time as any – I was planning to kidnap you fairly soon, after all."

"That is a poor idea," said Betty. "We had a good working relationship. I was just about to make a deal with you – why would you throw that away for something that will only end up putting you in jail?"

"I am quite confident I will succeed. And I do not need to make any deals with Global Justice. I will own that organization, just as I will own your future replacement."

Betty narrowed her eyes and raised her arms as the henchmen approached, ready to fight. The two henchmen at the door to the production center were the first to attack – Betty dispatched them easily, holding the first one back with several well-placed karate chops until she landed a powerful kick in its stomach, sending it flying back into its companion. The two of them slumped to the ground, but she barely had time to turn before Kimberly Anne was on her.

This synthodrone was a whole different animal. Or machine, Betty thought. While the first two had been no match for her, the syntho-Kim matched her blow for blow, inexorably pushing forward. It used its arms like shields, and Betty found all of her blows glancing harmlessly off of synthetic flesh when they didn't miss entirely. The synthodrone landed several blows of her own, and Betty staggered back in pain. She noticed the other two henchmen getting slowly up from the floor, and now a third one appeared in the doorway, drawn to the fighting.

Somehow, Betty snaked her foot out in a sweeping motion and managed to connect a lucky strike to the synthodrone's right ankle. It was enough to send it off its balance, and Betty backed off as the syntho-Kim toppled into one of Bortel's Gestation Vats, shattering the glass tube and sending a wave of liquid spilling out over the floor, along with a naked synthodrone. Not the one she had recognized as Kim Possible's sidekick, though. The scene was grotesque, and Betty barely avoided tripping over the prone form in front of her.

Even with that painful crash, Kimberly Anne didn't seem phased at all – she leaped up from the vat's wreckage, ready to return to the fight. Betty stared at Kim Possible's synthetic clone and couldn't help feeling ruefully amused. Bortel must have thought the syntho-Kim was his right hand woman, like Shego was to Drakken, but Global Justice had added their own programming to control Kimberly Anne when they needed to. And yet, right now, that was useless to Betty. She wasn't at the GJ headquarters. For all she knew, maybe Bortel had disabled the programming Dr. Haytham added, anyway.

Before she could resume her fight with the synthodrone, Betty felt a sudden sharp, stinging pain in her back. She grimaced, reaching a hand back and feeling an object there. She turned and saw one of the other henchmen smiling at her, and as she pulled the object from her back, she realized it was a syringe. _Some kind of tranquilizer_, Betty thought. It had pumped something through her, and whatever it was, it was strong. She felt herself growing woozy already.

"Global Justice will be coming," she said.

The tranquilizer felt like it was coursing through every vein in her body. She fell awkwardly to her knees. The syntho-Kim had a strange expression, as if it was contemplating something very intensely; the two of them stared at each other as the other synthodrone henchmen came forward and picked Betty up, snaking their arms under hers for support. Bortel stepped forward and took off his glasses, polishing them as he peered down at his captive and stroked his white beard thoughtfully.

"You think so?" he asked. "They have not come for Jack Hench."


	18. Party Crasher

**Party Crasher**

XX

It was a miracle: Ron Stoppable was actually getting pretty good at football!

Monique never thought she'd see the day, but there was no denying what she was seeing from her seat on the bleachers. Sure, Ron still fumbled the ball sometimes, and he stood no chance of sacking anybody like Brick Flagg, if Brick hadn't already graduated from Middleton High School. But the boy could run. And how! It must have been a side effect of all those years of freak fighting with Kim. She was well aware of Ron's role as fast-moving distraction, based on all the stories the two of them told her after their missions.

"He's doing pretty good, right?" asked Felix.

"I was just thinkin' that."

"If he puts as much effort into this as he does into _Zombie Mayhem_, he could end up doing this in college. Although he likes _Zombie Mayhem 2_ more than the third installment, which totally calls his good sense into question."

Monique laughed – Felix would know. The two of them sat in the middle of the bleachers, where she had been shocked to see Felix execute a crazy maneuver with his swanky wheelchair and reach the row despite thinking she'd have to come down to the bottom row to sit beside him. He had that crazy hoverchair, too, but even when he was using a regular wheelchair, it seemed to be no impediment at all. With the kind of friends she had, sometimes Monique wondered if she needed to work out more. Or take some acrobatics classes, or _something_.

She and Felix had gone out to the football field after classes so they could watch Ron practicing with his team. They had been watching for a while now, wanting to show a their support – especially since he had been in a funk for so long lately with all the Kim drama. Monique just hadn't expected the gym teacher to keep the team in practice for this long. She was getting bored, to be honest.

"Go, Ron!" she shouted. "Knock that boy down!"

Monique knew the boy in question was twice Ron's size, but she couldn't help having a little fun. Fortunately Ron knew better and kept running for the end zone with the ball. Mr. Barkin watched his students competing against each other during their after-school practice from the sidelines; at the sound of Monique's shout, he threw her a disapproving glare.

"JENKINS!" he shouted. "Don't distract my boys!"

"Sorry, sir. Won't happen again!"

Mr. Barkin's shout seemed to distract Ron more than Monique's had, however, because she winced as Ron looked back at his coach and lost his footing just in time to hit the ground beneath a pile of several beefy guys. Monique and Felix both flinched at the sight. Despite Ron's pain, she couldn't help thinking the sight of a bunch of hunky guys piled in a heap was one of the most wonderful things she had ever seen in her life. She was a little sad when they got up again. Ron emerged from the bottom of the heap and took a few wobbly steps back to the line of scrimmage.

"Come on, Stoppable! Pick it up! Use your size to your advantage, boy – squirm away from them like a greased pig! MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!"

Monique wrinkled her nose at the pig reference as Mr. Barkin continued yelling at his students. He seemed on edge, she thought. More than usual, anyway. There was a game coming up soon – maybe he was always that snippy, and it was just what coaches did. And it was hard to tell if it was just her imagination, since Barkin being a little testier than usual was comparable to normal people going off the deep end.

"Hey, guys! What are you two doing here?"

Monique and Felix looked up to see Kim, who sat down beside them. "Hey, Kim," said Monique. "Just watching our boy practicing a little."

"I see," said Kim. "Out there throwing the pig knuckles."

Felix laughed. "Um, no, it's called a pigspin."

Monique laughed at both her friends. "It's called a pig_skin_. But nice try."

"What? I totally thought it was named after how you're supposed to put a spin on the ball when you throw it."

Monique shook her head, amused. But she was also intrigued as she watched her best friend watching Ron from the bleachers. She hadn't seem Kim paying much attention to Ron lately – or at least, the two of them deliberately tried to avoid paying attention to each other.

Monique hadn't seen Kim much lately herself. The girl had been skipping school more than usual, and Monique knew it wasn't for missions. At least not the kind of missions she was used to hearing about. She had actually been hanging out with Ron a lot more than Kim lately. Part of it was that she felt sorry for Ron, part of it was that Monique had been a little hostile towards Kim when the Shego thing blew up. But part of it was just the fact that Kim had been withdrawn. Monique didn't want to press things – she figured her best friend would open up if she wanted to, and a few early efforts after her initial disapproval hadn't gotten anything out of Kim. But here she was, sitting on the bleachers with them at Ron's practice. It was weird.

"So, uh, why are _you_ here?" Felix asked Kim. Monique smiled; apparently he shared her curiosity.

"Well, I had nothing else to do," said Kim. "I thought I'd hang out a bit and see how the practice is going."

"Is something goin' on, girl? You and Ron back together?"

Kim shook her head. Monique had to admit she was kind of disappointed.

"We did have a talk, though. And I cut things off with Shego. I think me and Ron are just going to try to be friends again – it might take a while, but I think we can do it."

"Really? Sounds good to me," said Monique.

"POSSIBLE!"

The three of them jumped as Mr. Barkin appeared beside them out of nowhere.

"Hey, Mr. Barkin," said Kim.

"What are you doing here? Are you back with Stoppable?"

Kim and Monique shared amused glances. Monique wondered if Mr. Barkin was into school gossip just as much as she was, and just did a better job of listening quietly while his students shared it with each other. "I'm not," said Kim. "But I wanted to give him a little support while he practices."

"Hmm. What about Shego? Still locked in a lesbian tryst?"

Monique and Felix covered their heads in embarrassment.

"No, that's off too, not that it's any of your business."

"Excellent. She was turning you into a juvenile delinquent – good to hear you've rejected evil. Carry on!"

Mr. Barkin slapped Kim on the back, catching her off guard and almost knocking her off the bleachers, before he stepped back down and resumed his coaching duties. Monique and Felix looked at her for a moment, trying to keep straight faces, before bursting into laughter.

"Okay," asked Monique as they quieted down. "Does this all mean you'll actually be acting normal around us from now on?"

Her question seemed to make Felix uncomfortable, as if he expected Kim to be offended, but he didn't know the girl as well as Monique did. She knew Kim would take it as a joke, even if it was true that she had been acting weird around them, and sure enough, Kim laughed in response. "Yeah," she said. "I think so. I'm sorry if I was a pain in the butt to you guys."

"It's all good. I wasn't around as much as I shoulda been. You're my best friend, after all."

"I guess I was just confused," said Kim. "I had to figure some things out."

"And you figured them out, huh?"

Kim stared out at the field for a long time without responding, watching Ron running in circles as he tried to get away from a pair of burly players. He seemed to have temporarily forgotten to run towards the end zone, but before long, he corrected himself and dodged their grasp by a hair's breadth. After making the touchdown, he noticed Kim watching and gave her a hesitant wave. He didn't smile at first, but when Kim did, he returned it. Monique even noticed Mr. Barkin looking back at the bleachers with a satisfied nod.

Finally, Kim spoke up.

"Yeah," she said. "I think so."

It didn't seem like a very confident response to Monique. But then again, it was stupid to expect her best friend to act normal again after she had been shacking up with her former arch enemy, of all people. Something like that had to make a girl start questioning where she was going. Even if she was here at practice, hanging out with them again instead of going off to God knows where with that woman, that didn't mean nothing in the past few weeks had happened. Kim probably needed time to work things out with herself, not to mention with Stoppable.

But this was a start.

XX

"- and that's when I told him he was in over his head!"

Shego watched as a group of wealthy Go City socialites laughed politely at her older brother's tales of adventure and crime fighting. Hego had been on a roll, at least in his own mind, but as far as she could see, the bevy of beautiful buxom blondes he had gathered around himself weren't particularly impressed with his exploits. _Maybe blondes aren't so dumb after all_, Shego thought. Despite a few polite laughs, Hego's ego seemed as transparent to them as it was to her.

"So anyway," Hego continued, "it took about an hour to fish him out of that well."

As her brother launched into a new story, Shego lost what little interest she had and began to wander around the ballroom in the mayor's mansion. The room was filled with the movers and shakers of Go City, some of whom Shego had met in the past when she was still with Team Go, and some of whom she had met for the first time tonight. None of them were people she _wanted_ to know, but Team Go worked closely with the mayor, and Bill Vito loved throwing parties like these. The occasional waiter passed by with a tray of hors d'oeuvres, which Shego grabbed happily. The waiters were the only people she really wanted to see.

Speaking of people she didn't want to be around, Mego appeared from behind a group of well-dressed businesspeople. "Hey, Shego, try not to hit the appetizers too hard, huh? If you're gonna be back on the team, we don't want you ballooning out."

Shego glared at her brother. He seemed to be just as unhappy about being here as she did. Mego was similar to her in a lot of ways, actually, so it was strange that they found each other so obnoxious. "Piss off," she said.

"Jeez! Lighten up, sis."

Mego went off in his older brother's direction, presumably to embarrass him in front of the women he had gathered around himself. Shego was about to look for more of those finger sandwiches the servers were carrying when the Wegos suddenly appeared, holding champagne glasses. It was like she couldn't get away from her siblings.

"Hey, Shego," said Wendell. He more cheeky of the twins, although Shego could only tell the slight differences between them after growing up with them; to the average observer, they were identical in personality as well as appearance. "How's the party?"

"Lame," said Shego. "What the hell are you drinking?"

"Champagne!"

"It was his idea," said Walter, the infinitesimally more well-behaved one.

"Yeah, well, neither one of you are drinking champagne. What are you guys, like twelve?"

"Just turned twenty-one," they both said in unison.

"Sure."

"I can't believe you don't even know our ages!" said Walter.

Wendell wagged a finger at her. "Besides, I remember you coming home drunk sometimes when you were in high school!"

"You're totally making that up."

"No, I'm not!"

"Alright, off you guys go. Go mingle or something."

Shego sent the Wegos packing, but grabbed their glasses before they left. She downed both their champagne glasses in one gulp each before handing them off to a passing waiter. Maybe a buzz would help her enjoy the evening, at least a little. She looked around, wondering what the best course of action was. Nobody interesting was here, and she hadn't wanted to attend Vito's party in the first place; was it best to stick around and play the role of the good girl? Or could she get away with ditching the place and hitting downtown Go City? She wasn't big on champagne, anyway.

Maybe, at the least, she could thank the mayor for inviting them. Part of being the new Shego, she thought, although the more she told herself that, the more hollow it was beginning to sound. She just had to keep Princess in mind.

"Hey, Shego, baby!"

A man walked up and grabbed Shego's hand without asking, shaking it vigorously. She didn't recognize him.

"Who are you?"

"Jimmy Blamhammer's the name! I saw you mixin' it up with Team Go at the bank earlier on TV! I gotta say, I like your style! I'm here in Go City filmin' a couple commercials, but I think you'd be the perfect star of a new movie I'm cookin' up: _Mean, Green, and Teen_! It'd need a few nude scenes, but that's no big deal. Whaddya say?"

"Um, number one? I'm not a teen. Number two? _No._"

"Hey, it's no big deal! The way you look, I coulda sworn you weren't a day over nineteen. And nobody in teen movies is actually a teen! Especially not _those_ movies. So come on, it could be worth your while!"

"It could be worth your while to get out of my face," said Shego. "Unless you want a demonstration of just how mean I can be."

Jimmy took a few steps back, laughing as he loosened his tie a little. "Hey, that's alright! Look, here's my card-"

Shego swatted his hand aside and turned away, strategically weaving past a few other guests to put some distance between herself and the annoying man. This party was going from bad to worse. She had been on the fence about whether or not to stick around, but she began to feel increasingly absurd. Why was she here? Was this really what Kim wanted? Was this what _she_ wanted?

All of this was her attempt to change, to be more like Kim, to do the right thing. But this didn't seem right to her. These people were bores, nothing like Drakken, who – although she would never admit it to him – was an interesting guy. These people weren't like her at all, and neither were her brothers. Even in the space of a day or two, she felt like she was trying to run up the side of a cliff. There was no way she could do it in the long run. But that didn't change the fact that she wanted Kim, and so she was left in an impossible position: be with Kim by turning into someone else, or be herself, alone.

Fighting Aviarius at the bank, settling into Go Tower that evening and dealing with all the annoying habits her siblings had which she thought she had left behind, and now _this_. The way they fought crime and supervillainy as part of a system that, to Shego, seemed even more false and duplicitous than the criminals they fought. Being tools for the mayor, following her older brother's stupid orders and immeasurable narcissism. The more Shego thought about it, the more she remembered why she had left Team Go in the first place. There were more specific events that caused her departure – events she could have put behind her, perhaps – but the big picture hadn't changed. This was not the life for her.

And she was definitely ditching this party.

But before she took a step in the direction of the door, she hesitated again.

At the least, she decided she would say goodbye to the mayor and do the whole gracious guest thing. Despite her realization, Shego didn't _want_ to give up. To her, giving up on her not-so-new superhero lifestyle would be like giving up on Kim. She knew she didn't belong here, but a part of her still believed she could change herself. It was just a matter of running through the gauntlet, of forcing herself back into the mold.

She looked across the room and saw the broad staircase which led up to the second floor, where a number of rooms and offices overlooked the open ballroom past the second-floor balustrade. A quick scan of the ballroom did not help her spot the mayor – maybe he was upstairs. She weaved her way through the crowd in an attempt to avoid talking to anyone again and went upstairs, where the noise of the partygoers grew a little more dull. A chandelier hung down to her right, past the balustrade that overlooked the ballroom below. Shego passed a few doors to her left until she came upon one that was ajar, just a little. If her memory served her correctly, this was Bill Vito's office.

Sure enough, the mayor was inside, seated at a desk to the left of the doorway. An open window faced Shego on the other side of the room, drapes fluttering in a breeze that wafted in from the deep blue evening sky outside. The rest of the room was lined with bookcases and marble busts; they were previous Go City mayors, Shego noted, after reading the plaque set into the base of the nearest bust.

"Thego!" the mayor said, looking up from some papers. "Tho nice of you to attend my party!"

"Um, no problem," she said.

"What bringth you upthtairs? I wath just about to go down, but I had thome important work to finish up."

"Just wanted to say thanks for inviting me," said Shego. "I think I'm gonna duck out early, actually."

"That'th too bad!"

"Yeah, you know how it is, Mr. Mayor. Lots of-"

Shego stopped in mid-sentence, noticing the blonde woman who had been sitting in another chair a few feet away from Bill Vito's desk, staring at him with a slavish smile and apparently not even noticing her entrance. The woman had been sitting so still that Shego hadn't even registered her presence at first – as if she was one of the busts lining the room.

"Oh, yeth," said the mayor, noticing the direction of her gaze. "Thego, meet my athithtant, Debra!"

"Hello there!" said Debra, noticing her for the first time. She stood up and extended a hand, which Shego reluctantly shook – something about her grip seemed strange. As if the woman had no reaction to her touch. "I'm also Bill's lover!" she exclaimed.

Shego was about to laugh at the strange statement, and then probably retch a little at the thought of the mayor getting it on with an assistant who couldn't even be half his age – but then something clicked. The way Debra stared, the way she seemed just a little bit unnatural in her movements – she was a synthodrone. It wasn't that surprising to see Bill Vito with a love drone, anyway. He had always struck her as a bit of a creep.

Shego was grossed out and unsettled by turns, but at the same time, she had to remind herself that she had made her own sex-bot. That was probably why she had caught on to Debra so quickly. Suddenly, her actions seemed more embarrassing and creepy in retrospect. Not only that, but she reminded herself that Kimmie was still in high school, while she had graduated college a while ago; maybe she didn't have a leg to stand on when she tried to judge Vito for having a lover half his age. Or maybe like a tenth of his age, depending on when the synthodrone was actually made.

While she did have an urge to leave the room, she felt a certain curiosity about Debra.

"Is she a synthodrone?" she asked the mayor.

"Why, yeth. I forgot - didn't you have one of Kim Pothible, before you were with the real Kim?"

Shego was taken aback for a moment, but then nodded reluctantly. She had no idea how the mayor had heard about her little Kimmie love toy, followed by her tryst with the real thing. Bill Vito was a well connected man, as the tacky private parties demonstrated. "Did you get yours from Bortel?" she asked.

Vito looked guarded for a moment, as if he didn't want to admit to dealing with the man, but apparently he decided it was okay to open up to Shego. He leaned forward conspiratorially. "Yeth indeed. He ith an excthellent inventor, ith'nt he?"

"Actually, the technology was Drakken's," said Shego, surprised to feel an urge to defend her old boss. "I kind of stole the technology from him and gave it to Bortel so he'd make me a synthodrone for me."

"Ith that tho," said the mayor. "I thuppose I thould thank you for Debra, then!"

"Uh, no need to thank me."

"Now that you're back with Team Go, doeth that mean you're thtill with Kim Pothible?"

Shego shook her head.

"Ith Kim thtill working with Global Juthtice?"

Shego wondered why the mayor was so interested in Kim Possible all of a sudden. She wondered if the two of them had ever even met. Learning that Bortel had been doing good business with his synthodrone sex-bots had been interesting, but Shego decided she was getting bored of talking to the mayor – not to mention, after shaking hands with his bleached blonde synthodrone secretary, she kind of wanted to wash her hands.

"Actually," she said, "I hope you don't mind, but I don't really feel like talking about Kim. I need to get back to Go Tower – thanks again for inviting me."

The mayor looked a little disappointed. Shego turned around, about to leave the room, when she bumped into someone unexpectedly. She was about to apologize to Debra, but immediately realized she had not bumped into the mayor's sexy synthodrone. She had bumped into the mayor. She did a confused double-take.

"Oh, sorry about that, Mr. Mayor-"

Shego paused, frowned. She stared at the mayor, then turned and looked back at his desk.

"What the-"

There was the mayor, at his desk. Shego looked back and forth a few times. Yep. Two mayors, for sure. As she already had synthodrones on her mind, Shego knew what was going on. Hallucination was definitely out of the question. Something about this did not look good at all.

"Who are you?" asked the mayor, standing up with fright. "Why do you – you're-"

"I"m you!" said his copy.

"What?"

"I'm going to replace you. You need to come with me."

This was _so_ not what she had come to the mayor's party for.

Without warning, a syringe appeared in the syntho-Mayor's hand, glinting sharply as it strode forward. Shego was in between the mayor and his twin assassin – the synthodrone first took a swipe at her with its free hand, but she dodged out of the way, giving it a sweeping kick to the lower legs. The synthodrone hit the mayor's desk and pushed it back, sending the mayor scurrying back from his chair with fright. It knocked papers and a name plaque down with it as it went crashing to the floor. Shego was about to make a move and try to pin it so she could remove the syringe, which she assumed was for jabbing the mayor and incapacitating him, but the mayor's love-drone suddenly knocked her out of the way.

"Get away from him!" yelled Debra, leaping on the syntho-Mayor.

The two synthodrones struggled briefly, but Shego could already see what was going to happen. It was obvious that Debra had not been designed with any martial arts skills in mind. In a split second, the assassin wriggled free of its attacker, grabbed a letter opener from the carpet where it had fallen from the mayor's desk, and brought it swinging down in a wide arc. The letter opener buried itself into Debra's back, and the assassin pushed her away as she rolled onto the carpeted floor.

"Debra!" yelled the mayor.

Shego watched as Debra let out a low groan and began to melt. It was just like she had seen with Drakken's synthodrones, even with Eric – her clothing, skin, her entire body, seemed to crumple in on itself. Her face wrinkled grotesquely, her open mouth imploded into itself, like it was sucking itself away as she wasted away in front of them. A moment later, there was nothing left but a puddle of greenish synthogoo staining the carpet. The mayor gaped in shock at where his lover had once been.

"Vito, watch out!"

Shego pushed the mayor aside just as his clone rushed forward with the syringe, which it had picked up from the carpet. A swing barely missed Vito's arm. Shego used the synthodrone's momentum against it and kicked it in the back, sending it hurtling forward and smashing into the mayor's desk once again. It lost its footing and went rolling over the top of the desk, where it hit the chair on the other side and crashed to the floor. A flurry of papers, knocked off the desk, floated down to the floor around them. The synthodrone struggled for a second, tangled in the upended chair.

"Come on, Mr. Mayor, follow me. We have to-"

Shego felt a hard punch in her stomach. She doubled over in pain. The synthodrone had gotten up much more quickly than she had expected. It definitely had moves. Another punch sent her stumbling backwards, painfully smacking into a marble bust, which dropped to the floor and shattered – poor Cornelius Vandenburg the third, Shego thought, noticing the plaque. The synthodrone was about to attack her again, but it noticed the mayor using the opportunity to dart towards his office door. It moved forward to cut him off, wielding the letter opener and syringe in each of its hands.

Shego smirked. Synthodrone or not, it couldn't keep an eye on everything at once.

She elbowed it viciously on the arm, snatched the knife after the synthodrone dropped it from its hand, and stabbed it in the back just as it was about to leap onto the mayor. Bill Vito had already gotten out the door, but looked back, expecting Shego to join him, and saw the synthodrone freeze in place. Shego stepped back as it arched itself and reached back with its hand. At any second, it would crumple up and melt in a disgusting mess, like Debra.

But it didn't.

The syntho-Mayor twisted its arm in an unsettling way and managed to reach easily to the center of its back, where the knife's handle was sticking out, the blade buried completely. Its hand grasped the handle and yanked it effortlessly from synthetic flesh, and the arm righted itself into a normal position. Maybe it was her imagination, but Shego could swear she saw the knife wound closing up just as the synthodrone turned. Like it was healing. It looked between Shego and the mayor, trying to decide which to attack first, and flashed Shego a toothy smile.

"That wasn't nice!"

Shego braced herself for an attack. But instead of going for her, the synthodrone abruptly shifted direction and ran through the office door straight at the mayor, who was still standing on the balcony overlooking the ballroom outside. Fortunately, it took Shego a split second to realize that was _exactly_ what she wanted it to do. The synthodrone seemed like it was too focused on killing the mayor. It didn't realize it was best to take out its most dangerous opponent first.

Shego darted out of the office after the synthodrone, which was just about to stab the mayor, who had dropped to the floor of the balcony, cowering in terror with his hands over his head. The synthodrone's stood with its back to her, only a feet feet from the door of the office, and another couple of feet to the railing that overlooked the ballroom below. Shego leaped forward with a flying kick, catching it square in the back. The synthodrone actually went airborne, breaking through the balustrade like kindling.

The sound of splintering wood turned into a shattering crash of glass when the synthodrone reached out its hands, trying to catch the edge of the chandelier which hung just beyond the balcony. It hung on for just a moment, but the chandelier couldn't support the extra weight and tore from its socket in the ceiling. It dropped, along with the mayor's assassin clone, crashing to the floor of the ball room. Shego heard a number of screams coming from below: she helped the mayor up from the balcony floor and stepped up to the edge of the broken railing, looking down at his guests.

"Shego!"

Hego looked up from the ground floor, where he had almost been hit by the falling synthodrone and the shattered chandelier. He looked half shocked and half outraged.

"You killed the mayor!"

Shego pointed as the synthodrone got up from the floor, retrieving its knife.

"That's not the mayor, Hego! It's a synthodrone assassin! Watch out!"

The synthodrone looked up at them, but before it could make a move towards the stairs to come back up and attack the mayor again, Shego smiled victoriously as her brothers all assembled from various parts of the ballroom and attacked the synthodrone as the other guests ran screaming from the chaos. It had been putting up quite a fight against her, but against a united Team Go? The thing had no chance.

Her smile turned to a frown when the synthodrone took a body slam from Hego, his blue aura blazing, and got up as if it had been lightly pushed. Hego was caught off-guard and sent flying backwards with a well-placed spinning kick from the mayor's clone. It was kind of weird, seeing an old man with moves like that. Even weirder was the fact that it seemed to be holding up against her four brothers.

"Vito," she said, "stay up here, okay?"

The mayor nodded faintly, still looking a little shocked by the encounter. Shego leaped down from the balcony and hit the ballroom floor rolling. She stopped in a crouch as she charged up twin balls of roiling plasma and joined her brothers in the fight. She didn't know what exactly was going on, although she definitely getting the feeling the whole situation was related to Cyrus Bortel - that guy had been a supervillain in the making, after all.

This new synthodrone seemed to be an upgrade from the ones like Debra and Eric. It wasn't going to go down easy, but she'd be damned if it wasn't going down.

XX

They weren't quite there yet, but it was _almost_ like old times.

When Ron's practice had ended and Monique had suggested everyone go to Bueno Nacho to celebrate the end of the school week. Kim had been worried – would it be too awkweird? Would she be sitting next to Ron, not saying anything the whole time, with Rufus staring daggers at her? She got the impression the mole rat was quick to forgive, but you never knew. Having Monique and Felix come along for their evening meal had been what made up her mind. Even if things were a little awkward with Ron, they could take up some of the conversational slack, and Monique was chatty enough to hold up a conversation by herself if she needed to.

"Yeah," said Ron, "I gotta admit, that last catch I made was awesome."

"You're _so_ modest," said Monique. She pushed her tray away from her. "I'm gonna explode if I eat another bite."

Felix nodded in agreement. "Me too."

Ron looked like he was ready for another Naco, but after fishing through his pockets and realizing he was short on cash, he nodded in agreement. "I'm totally full," he said. "Even though Rufus ate half my food."

"Mm, sorry!"

The mole rat shrugged haplessly.

Kim got the feeling Ron would have asked her for some money if they had still been going out, but with things on the mend between them, he was avoiding it. She didn't mind lending him a couple bucks, but she decided it might embarrass him somehow. He had been eating like a pig, anyway.

The group threw their trash away and set their trays on the counter before heading for the door. Kim noticed Bonnie shoot them a withering glare from a booth in the corner – probably still steaming after their earlier encounter. She spilled out into the parking lot with her friends. Felix and Monique said their goodbyes, and Kim walked with Ron as he got onto his scooter. Rufus jumped into the basket, immediately settling down with a groan and holding his belly.

"Want a ride?" asked Ron, a little hesitantly.

"Um, that's alright. I need to burn off a few of those calories by walking, anyway."

The scooter choked into life and began to putter along the street. Kim followed on the sidewalk, as the two of them were taking the same way home. She hadn't been lying about the calories, but she also thought it might be weird, sitting on the scooter with her ex-boyfriend, arms wrapped around his waist. Fortunately, the scooter was slow enough that it barely matched her walking pace anyway.

The two of them made their way home, one walking and one riding, under the yellow glow of street lamps that had flickered to life as evening descended. The putter of Ron's scooter mixed with the chirping of crickets in the darkness.

"Nice job at practice today."

"Thanks, KP. I don't think I'll be able to sleep on my back tonight, though. Not after that last sack Preston gave me on the field."

"Yeah, that was pretty rough."

"Ah, he's cool, he just doesn't know his own strength."

Kim nodded. "We should definitely do it again sometime," she said.

"Do what?"

"Bueno Nacho."

"Oh, yeah. It was fun. Monique and Bonnie were cracking me up."

Kim laughed at the memory. Bonnie had shown up unexpectedly as they were all digging in to their Nacos. Her cheerleading rival's appearance had threatened to put a damper on her mood, and sure enough, Bonnie had a snarky comment ready about Kim's sexual confusion. Fortunately, Monique had shot back a retort about why Bonnie was so fascinated by Kim's recent interest in women, and suggested Kim was out of her league anyway. Bonnie's reaction had been priceless: after a huffy foot stamp and a noticeable blush, she had retreated to the corner of the Bueno Nacho, at which Kim and her friends broke out in gales of laughter. After that, the girl kept shooting them furtive, venomous glances for the rest of their meal.

It was enough to make Kim wonder if Monique was on to something – maybe Bonnie gave her such a hard time because she _did_ have some kind of hidden interest. It was possible.

Seeing Bonnie taken down a few notches had cheered her up. But more importantly, Kim was glad her friends seemed to be defending her. Even Ron had been about to shoot a comment off at Bonnie. She had been feeling isolated at school, and while at least a little bit of it was her own fault for trying to internalize her confusion and avoid dealing with her friends' questions, she was glad they were her friends. All of them seemed relieved that things were finally getting back to normal. With her friends by her side, Kim knew the way things had ended with Shego wasn't the end of the world – she'd get through it, in time.

"Alright," said Ron after they arrived at his house. "Here's casa de Ron. See you at school on Monday, KP."

"Have a good one, Ron!"

Ron parked his scooter and went inside as Kim continued down the sidewalk to her own house. As she walked along at a leisurely pace, she hummed a vague tune – something by the Oh Boyz that had been playing faintly at the Bueno Nacho. All in all, it had been a pretty good night. Once she got to her house, she could see the lights were on in the living room window. She was looking forward to hanging out with her family, now that things were getting back to normal with her parents, too. The tweebs had the occasional comment about how gross Kim was for liking Shego, but she expected that to let up pretty soon. Jim and Tim had the attention span of gnats, after all.

And yet, as much as things were getting back to normal, they were still different. A little off. Kim had been trying, that was for sure – she wanted to repair her friendship with Ron, she wanted to get back into the swing of school – but there was still that lingering feeling. Something changed, missing. The time she had spent with Shego couldn't be erased, after all. Not unless somebody altered her memories.

And it had been _real_. Even if Shego wasn't going to change, even if Kim knew she couldn't be in a relationship with someone who was a criminal, someone who worked for a supervillain, her feelings were still there. It wasn't just lust anymore, but something beyond that; she had enjoyed spending time with Shego when the woman was accepting her instead of trying to change her. They were both smart, snarky, they could both laugh at things together. And she was fascinated by the glimpses she got of the woman beyond the screen of posturing and apathy. In short, she liked Shego. She just wished the woman could wake up.

Kim turned at her driveway, about to walk up to the front door, when a figure ran towards her, obscured by darkness. She tensed up for a moment. Once it got closer, however, the lights over her garage doors illuminated it, and she realized it was Ron.

"KP!" he shouted. "We have a problem!"

"What is it, Ron?"

"Wade just called me on my communicator. There's a bus load of orphan children being held hostage downtown, and the police want our help. There's a ride waiting over there, past the hedges," he said, pointing in the direction from which he had come.

Kim immediately followed her friend as he raced back into the darkness. She was confused for a moment, wondering why Wade had called Ron instead of her, but then she realized it was probably just because he had been used to dealing with Ron lately, since she was off with Shego all the time. Shirking her mission duties, other than the lost cause Global Justice had sent her on – Kim felt a little guilty again. That would have to change, starting now.

Sure enough, on the other side of the hedges, there was a black van parked at the corner of a neighborhood intersection. One of Wade's rides, she supposed. Ron opened the door and leaped into the van, followed by Kim. She leaned forward to the front seats in order to thank the driver.

"Thanks for the ride-"

Normally she recognized most of their rides, but the burly driver looked unfamiliar. As Ron closed the door and the van began to drive, Kim realized something else unusual. She had left Ron at his house, but only moments later, he had come running from the right side of her own driveway – the wrong direction. Why would he have left his own house, circled around past hers, and come to pick up Kim from the opposite side?

Something was definitely wrong.

"Ron, what-"

Kim felt the sharp prick of a needle in her arm. She lashed out reflexively, knocking Ron back, but she could already feel something spreading, numbing her body. Fighting would be useless – after a lurching move towards the van's door, unable to even reach the door handle, she knew she was losing control of her muscles. Just before her eyesight began to blur, she got a closer look at Ron. He smiled at her. She flushed, embarrassed she had been caught off guard so easily.

It wasn't Ron. Something was off about him. Just like something had been off with her own syntho-clone.

"Sorry, KP," said the synthodrone. "Cyrus Bortel wants you to drop by."


	19. Sleepers

**Sleepers**

XX

"_Now!_"

For once, Shego didn't mind Hego's authoritarian tone. After being unable to take out the Mayor's synthodrone clone assassin over the course of what felt like at least an hour, she felt like she was ready to drop to the floor in exhaustion. The mayor himself, who stood in front of his open basement vault door, leaped aside just as the synthodrone charged at him. Mego and the Wegos, who had been hiding behind some conveniently-placed drapery, darted out along with Shego and her older brother, surrounding the synthodrone.

"Let me kill the mayor and take his place," it said. "Then all of you can go back to your party!"

Normally, Shego would have been amused by the strange offer. Apparently synthodrones weren't all that great at bargaining. Right now, though, they still had to take it out.

After a brief scuffle and a painful blow across the cheek, Shego managed to bring their enemy to the floor as her brothers piled in to join her. The synthodrone was powerful, but it it was no longer armed – the syringe had snapped off during a blow in the fight, and it had had lost its letter opener somewhere upstairs, before they had started drawing it down into the basement after Vito suggested locking it in his vault. With Team Go clinging to each limb, its struggles were in vain. Shego lifted it off the floor, both her arms pinning one of its legs while her older brother took the other leg, Mego and the Wegos restraining its arms. They dragged it bodily towards the vault door.

"Mr. Mayor, get ready!" shouted Hego.

"Thtanding by!"

"Throw him in, everyone!"

Shego and her brothers tossed the synthodrone into the darkened vault, Hego giving it an extra burst of his superpowers, which sent it sliding across the vault floor and crashing into some valuables stacked on shelves near the back. It got up with amazing speed – even after all their fighting, it didn't seem to experience any kind of fatigue the way humans did – but it had no chance of making it back to the door in time. Hego closed it, muscles flexing as he turned a set of steel bars on the door to manually lock it, while Bill Vito punched a code into a keypad nearby on the wall, activating an electronic lock as a extra line of defense.

Although she was trying to follow the path of good, Shego couldn't help wishing she had paid closer attention to the code the mayor had entered in. She had only gotten a quick glance inside the vault, but it looked like a smorgasbord of cash and goodies. The mayor, apparently, got a _lot_ of political donations. Either that or he was just a rich guy.

A muted pounding came from inside the vault. Shego and her brothers slumped against the walls of the vault's antechamber, catching their breath. If _one_ synthodrone fought like that, she had no idea how she'd handle a whole team of them. After realizing there was no way to destroy it in hand to hand combat – the synthodrone seemed to have some kind of self-repairing ability that sealed off scratches and cuts, at least – the mayor had managed to get across the idea of luring the synthodrone to his basement vault, which would do a good job of keeping it restrained. Fortunately, the synthodrone had been so single-minded in trying to destroy him, it hadn't caught on to the plan until it was too late.

"So what do we do now?" asked Mego.

"We need to protect the mayor from further dastardly doppelgangers!" exclaimed Hego. "Quick – to Go Tower!"

Shego had to agree; the best course of action was probably to get the mayor someplace more well fortified than his private mansion on the outskirts of Go City. There was no way to tell if that synthodrone was the only one built to look like him, or if there were more coming.

"Why was a synthodrone trying to kill you?" asked the Wegos.

"We can athk him," said the mayor. "Follow me."

Shego and her brothers followed the mayor's lead, making their way back up the stairs to the ground floor of his mansion. By now, the ballroom was empty – all of his guests had fled in terror. The broken chandelier lay shattered on the floor, a dead carcass of glass and iron. Upstairs, Shego could see the gaping gash in the balustrade where she had kicked the synthodrone down to the ballroom floor. They made their way up the curved stairway and passed his office – instead, the mayor led them to some kind of security room. He slipped into a chair which faced several computer monitors.

"Lookth like Bill made a run for it," he said. "Hired help these dayth, am I right?"

Shego assumed he was talking about a security guard. He pressed a few buttons and brought up several screens – peering more closely, she could tell they were security cameras monitoring different parts of his mansion. One overlooked the front of the mansion, where a winding gravel driveway passed into his courtyard through open iron gates. His guests had all driven the cars away long ago. Another camera, Shego noticed, was inside his vault downstairs. The synthodrone paced back and forth on the screen, looking perturbed.

"Can you hear me?" asked the mayor, picking up a headset with a microphone attached.

The synthodrone looked up, trying to see where the voice in the vault was coming from.

"Yes," it said.

"Who sent you?"

There was no reply.

Shego twisted the microphone away from Vito's face so she could speak into it. "Did Cyrus Bortel send you?"

Still no reply. It was obvious they weren't going to get any information out of it.

Shego was about to suggest they give up when something strange happened on the screen. The synthodrone had been standing in the middle of the vault, staring at the door as if hoping someone would open it, but as she watched, it slumped abruptly to the ground, like it had fallen unconscious. A moment later, and its body began to shrivel up. The mayor and her brothers leaned in closer to look. It was a little hard to see on the grainy cam, but the synthodrone had definitely just died. Or _something_. It warped and twisted before their eyes into a strange, mummified wisp of what it had once been. It wasn't quite like how the Debra synthodrone had melted – or Eric, or Drakken's synthodrones – but whatever had just happened, the mayor's clone was clearly not getting up again.

_ Creepy_, thought Shego.

This _had_ to be the work of Cyrus Bortel. As far as she was concerned, they had just seen a remote termination – like what she had tried to do with Kim Possible's synthodrone copy. She didn't know what his plans might be, but judging by the fact that Bill Vito had almost been killed by a perfect replica of himself, she couldn't help thinking he was doing a little power grabbing. Or maybe not a perfect replica – she had noticed that the synthodrone lacked the mayor's lisp. Still, he was obviously replacing public figures with ones more malleable to his own needs. Shego decided she would have to bring it up with her brothers, although maybe they'd have to stay at Go Tower with the mayor.

Either way, once the mayor was safe, Shego would have to pay Bortel a visit.

"Clean up on aisle three," said Mego as he looked at the security cam. His brothers looked disapprovingly at him, although Shego was amused.

"I think we need to leave now," said Hego. "We'll take you to Go Tower for safety, Mr. Mayor."

"Soundth good to me."

The three of them were about to leave the security room when the mayor, just before he got out of his desk chair, sat back down again. Shego saw something moving on the security camera screen that showed them the driveway and courtyard in front of his mansion. She groaned, expecting an army of synthodrones, but upon taking a closer look, she realized she was wrong. This was something far, far worse:

The Go City press corps.

"Do you have a back door?" she asked the mayor.

Bill Vito pointed to another security cam feed on one of the screens, which showed the back entrance to his mansion. There were more members of the press corps approaching from that side – Shego noticed a few people in gowns and torn suits, too. Probably distraught partygoers who had brought the reporters to the scene of the disturbance. She sighed as she and her brothers heard the sound of voices coming from downstairs. Maybe they wouldn't be getting back to Go Tower quite as fast as she'd hoped.

XX

Kim blinked groggily. She had been knocked out cold, but for how long, she didn't know.

Several pairs of hands led her onwards as she entered a doorway in the side of a mountain. She remembered being injected with something by Ron – no, not Ron, the fake Ron – and she remembered being in a van before blacking out. She remembered regaining consciousness, barely, on a small plane, taking her somewhere with her captors. And now, as a figure on each side of her supported her as they made their way into the mountain, she knew where they were:

Cyrus Bortel's lab facility.

She looked to either side, feeling her head swaying queasily with the effects of the drug injected into her by Ron's synthodrone copy, whatever it was. The syntho-Ron was on her left, and on her right walked one of the bulky black-suited henchmen, just like the ones that had attacked in the hospital parking lot. Now it was making sense. Cyrus Bortel had taken the MRM, although she didn't know why. They made their way into a familiar central laboratory, which she had seen weeks ago, trying to get Bortel to end his synthodrone experimentation before Global Justice intervened.

So much for _that_ working out.

"Ah, Kim Possible," said Cyrus Bortel. He had been looking out of a rock-hewn window in the side of his cliff lair, and turned back to greet his guest. "Welcome."

Kim wanted to know why supervillains always welcomed people to their lairs. Like they were happy to see their enemies. Whether she was being kidnapped or infiltrating an enemy lair, they always had that flippant attitude, like she was their guest. The Seniors were particularly fond of doing that. Sometimes she wished they would just cut the attitude and tell her they hated seeing her and wished she had never showed up in the first place.

"You'll never get away with this," she said, her voice still a little slow from the effects of the drug.

"How is it that you know exactly what I am trying to get away with?"

"You're trying to take over the world, aren't you?"

Bortel pursed his lips for a moment before nodding. He looked like he was a little miffed that when it came right down to it, his plan – whatever it was – was the same as every other supervillain. Even in her drugged state, Kim got a kick out of knocking the wind out of an egotistical enemy's sails.

"You may be right," he said, "about the world domination, that is. But unlike your previous supervillain opponents, I will be successful. My plan is already in motion, and you are the first piece of the puzzle! Wait, no, actually you are the second or third piece, after - look, it is no matter! With Kim Possible in my control, what opponents do I have left?"

"Global Justice will be coming," said Kim, although she had barely said the words before she began to doubt them. Global Justice had told her they had taken care of Bortel's little fascination with synthodrones, after all. Wade had also told her that, but GJ had probably lied to him as well. For all she knew, GJ and Bortel were in cahoots.

"I do not believe so," said Bortel. "They do not suspect a thing – I've had a long and fruitful working relationship with them, Kim Possible. How do you think I was able to continue my synthodrone operation when you and your little sidekick, Wade Load, wanted me to stop? I have powerful friends. Not to mention that Global Justice will soon be under my control, by which point they will be helping no one but me."

Kim wasn't quite sure what he meant by that, but it didn't sound good. "Ron will be coming for me," she said. She was more sure of that, at least.

"I am counting on that. He will be joining you very soon."

Kim hoped her enemy was underestimating Ron, but she couldn't ignore her own doubts. From the sound of it, he had a trap set up for Ron just like he had set up for her. She hoped Ron would be more alert than she was if her synthodrone clone came to trick him – and maybe his Mystical Monkey Powers would kick in at the right time. She knew she was reaching on that one, though. If she was duped, things didn't look good for Ron.

"How do you like my synthodrone version of Ron Stoppable?" he asked. "I had Kimberly Anne spending time with your sidekick so she could collect information on his appearance and personality – when she returned to me, I was able to make a copy. Is he convincing?"

Kim looked at the synthodrone standing beside her.

"What do you think, KP?" it asked cheerily.

It definitely _looked_ like Ron Stoppable; that part of the imitation was perfect, at least. As for how it acted, it was hard to tell, since she had only been around it for a few minutes, even counting when it showed up at her house to kidnap her. Still, something about it seemed off. She remembered its story about a busload of orphans – she and Ron had gone on some weird missions in the past, but that did seem like it was a bit much. Something in its eyes, in particular, seemed off. She was embarrassed it had fooled her.

It didn't seem like Ron, in the end. Not quite. She shook her head.

"Well, apparently it was enough to fool you," said Bortel indignantly. "And it is no matter. I started creating that one just before I used my synthodrone henchmen to steal the Memory Recovery Machine from Dr. Langford at the hospital. Now that I have _that_ device, I will be able to create far more convincing synthodrones. Not only that, but I have perfected my gestation process – they grow faster than ever! I could create a synthodrone army before you could snap your fingers, Kim Possible!"

"Overcompensating much? Most guys your age just get a red sports car, you know."

Bortel sputtered for a moment before pointing at Kim's two captors. "Take her to the prison," he said. "Let all our guests share a cell, since we may have more arrivals soon."

"Yes, sir!"

The chirpy voice of Ron's synthodrone, coming from beside Kim, was unsettling. The syntho-Ron and the other henchman dragged her into an elevator and pressed a down button. They descended into the mountain. When the doors opened up again and Kim's captors dragged her out, the décor seemed to change from mad scientist chic to a more rough-hewn, rocky texture, carved from the mountain's bowels. They passed through a steel door, into an antechamber which connected a number of prison cells. The prison area was dim and gloomy, but each of the prison cells was blocked off by rows of neon-colored energy beams which cut down from the ceiling, pulsing eerily.

Kim let out a yelp of surprise as the syntho-Ron and the henchman threw her at one cell. She went flying through the colored beams and hit the stone floor with a thud – inside the small chamber where she had been thrown, it seemed to be pitch black, the light of the beams only extending a few feet back into the cell. She sat up against a wall, groaning as she tried to adjust her eyesight to the minuscule amount of light. She felt through her pockets. Her captors had taken the Kimmunicator, and she could feel her grappling gun was gone as well.

The two synthodrones peered at her through the energy beams. She got the feeling they worked one way, so that captives could be thrown easily into the cell, but would get some kind of nasty burn if they tried to get back out. Kim had only just gotten up when she jumped in fright, catching a shifting movement out of the corner of her eye. She peered into the darkness and backed against a wall of the little rocky prison cell as she tensed, ready for an attack.

"Who is that?" she demanded.

"Kim Possible?"

The voice was familiar. Kim peered further, recognizing the outline of a person.

"Dr. Director? What are you doing down here?"

"I've been here for a long time," said Dr. Director. "Bortel's been holding me here."

She looked more closely; it wasn't just one person, but two.

"_Jack Hench!_"

"Kim Possible! Pleasure to see you down here."

Bortel had been a busy man. Kim began to realize what the supervillain had meant when he said Global Justice would soon be under his control, and if Hench was down here, he probably had Hench Co wrapped around his little finger, too. The imitation of Ron, the imitation of herself – the man had been busy making a lot of doppelgangers. And if he had Betty Director in his possession, there was probably a fake one running GJ at this very moment.

"I take it Bortel's got replacements for the two of you."

They nodded.

"I can't believe Miss Harcourt didn't see through Bortel's ruse," said Hench.

"Miss Harcourt? Ruse?"

"My secretary. She's a nice girl, but maybe not the sharpest tool in the shed. Bortel said he left her a message to tell her I was out sick before he could install my synthodrone replacement."

Kim frowned. He had probably done the same thing with Dr. Director, which would explain why Global Justice hadn't already picked up on what was going on. "Well, don't worry," she said. "We won't be stuck down her for long. Ron and Wade will figure out what's going on before long."

Although Kim tried to sound confident, she didn't feel that way. She hoped Ron would come and pull off a miracle. Maybe Global Justice, despite their unreliability, despite the fact that she no longer trusted them – maybe they could pull through and prove her wrong. They couldn't be in cahoots if Bortel had Dr. Director down here in a prison cell, after all – or if they had been, they weren't anymore. Someone else came to mind, too. Kim was a little surprised to think of her, but she supposed something had formed between them that couldn't really be shaken, even if she had been trying to move on.

But Kim didn't want to get her hopes up. After how she had rejected Shego, she wasn't expecting her to come to the rescue. At least she wasn't alone down here – maybe the three of them could find some way of breaking out of the prison, fighting her way out of the lair. But then, Dr. Director and Jack Hench might not be very helpful if they had been down here wasting away for days.

There was no guarantee anyone would come for them. She would have to rely on herself, in the end.

But anything was possible for a Possible.

XX

It wasn't that his mother's dinner wasn't good – it was always good – but Wade was just a little distracted. He poked at his peas and mashed potatoes, lost in thought, until his mother raised an eyebrow and tapped a knuckle on the table to get his attention.

"What's on your mind, honey?"

"Um, not much. Just supervillain stuff."

"I wish you wouldn't get involved in all that. Sooner or later some of those nasty supervillains are gonna come knockin' around here, and then what'll we do?"

"Don't worry," he told his mother. "I have security measures in place."

"And just what does _that_ mean, Wade Load? I hope you ain't talkin' about anything like that laser grid you installed in the garage last year. I don't need another station wagon sliced up like a bunch of metal french fries. You listenin' to me?"

Wade coughed nervously. That was, in fact, exactly what he was talking about – among other things. He had upgraded the laser system since then, and it wasn't like anyone had been in the car at the time, but his mother wouldn't listen to that kind of reasoning. He knew it was a lost cause – much like his dinner. After half-heartedly gnawing on his half-eaten pork chop, he put it back on his plate. "May I be excused?" he asked.

"I guess so. You gonna watch _Ballroom with B Actors_ on TV with me tonight? I hear Dennis from the Oh Boyz is going to be on, or whatever that boy's name is. He's my favorite."

"Um, I'll try, as long as I'm not too busy."

His mother rolled her eyes, knowing what that meant. Wade had to admit he was often pretty busy. But what could he do? He left the dinner table and went up to his room, feeling kind of guilty, but when you were the technical brains behind a dynamic crime-fighting duo like Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, you tended to have a busy schedule. Wade wasn't just any kid, after all. He had responsibilities. Evil never slept - and if it wasn't for sheer exhaustion and sugar crashes, most of time Wade probably wouldn't be sleeping either.

The bank of glowing computer monitors gazed at him from the dark confines of his room, like old friends wondering where he had gone. He sat down in his desk chair and got to work, pulling up the security tapes from Middleton Hospital. He had been suspicious over the last few days. Something was up, but Wade couldn't put his finger on it. He knew Global Justice was looking into the unknown black-clad assailants that had made off with the MRM, but Wade was looking into it too.

The security cameras out in the front parking lot had just barely captured the fight going on between Global Justice, Shego and Drakken, and their mysterious black-clad assailants. A couple of them had run off towards the back lot after grabbing the MRM, with Kim in hot pursuit, but they had disappeared beyond the camera feed, and so Wade couldn't track where they had gone. But the ones out front interested him.

As he watched the figures, Wade tried to put his finger on what was off about them. They had run off out of range of the cameras after the fight was over, and while he had caught a black van in the corner of one video, the license plate wasn't visible, and ultimately, he couldn't tell where they had gone. But something about the fight itself kept catching his attention. He had already watched it on the tapes before, but something about the figures... they were just _off. _The way they fought, the way they seemed unusually tireless for henchmen – Wade wasn't an expert on henchmen, but usually they weren't all that impressive, according to Kim and Ron.

So why did these guys seem so organized, so precise?

A interesting thought crossed his mind.

Ron and Kimberly Anne had visited Jack Hench the other day because his secretary thought _he_ seemed off, somehow. Kimberly Anne had said there was nothing strange going on, and that Hench seemed human to her. Global Justice had shot down their suspicions as well, promising they'd look into it, and they hadn't mentioned finding anything amiss when it came to Jack Hench. But, of course, Kimberly Anne had tried to kill Kim, and Global Justice was hiding something about that Memory Recovery Machine, so it wasn't like either of _them_ were reliable authorities. Wade had been suspicious, even after Ron's visit to Hench was a bit of a wild goose chase, but he had dropped it after the incident with the MRM distracted him.

But what if it was all related?

Wade had security tapes on his mind – since he had already been looking at the ones from Middleton Hospital, it couldn't hurt to look at the ones from Hench Co. He didn't really know Jack Hench the way Kim and Ron did, and he couldn't sniff out a synthodrone the way he and Ron had been hoping Kimberly Anne might be able to. But maybe there was something he could notice.

Normally it could take a while to access Hench Co's private intranet, seeing as the company was kind of a power player, but Wade realized he had a potential entry into the system that might be a little faster. Not only that, but maybe he could help out Jack Hench's secretary when he hadn't been able to tell her anything useful earlier. He dialed a telephone number through the computer.

"Hello," came a female voice. "Jack Hench's office. How can I help you?"

"Miss Harcourt?"

"Yes, this is she."

"Wade Load here. You asked me for help when you thought there was something wrong with your boss, remember?"

"Oh yes, the tech genius that Kim Possible referred me to! How are you?"

"I'm fine. I thought I could find out if something was going on with Jack Hench, but I need a little help."

"He's definitely still acting weird," she said, her voice lowering a little. If Wade had to guess, she was probably at the receptionist's desk and didn't want to be too loud in case her boss was nearby. "How can I help you?"

"What's your Hench Co email address?"

"FoxyLady23 at employees dot Hench Co dot com. Why do you ask?"

Wade shook his head. Not a very professional email. "I'm going to send you an attachment," he said. "Please accept it when you get it."

Fortunately, Wade had a number of viruses set up for various occasions, and it didn't take long to pick a useful one and attach it to an email before sending it. Getting into a private network wasn't all that difficult if you had someone who was actually willing to accept an email with an attached Trojan. He felt a little guilty, but it was quickly overtaken by excitement at getting to break into a system. He always enjoyed that. And it wasn't like he sent out Trojans to random people, after all. This was for a good cause.

"Okay," said Miss Harcourt. "I pressed the little file download button!"

"Thanks. Hey, do you mind if I call back later with what I find?"

"Not at all. But you won't be able to call me at work before Monday. I'm just about to leave for the weekend – I want to get home and watch the new _Ballroom With B Actors_ tonight."

"Oh, yeah. I hear Dennis from The Oh Boyz is going to be on that."

"Um, there _is_ no Dennis in The Oh Boyz."

Wade felt disappointed that his pop culture tidbit had been rejected. "Well, bye," he said.

The phone connection closed just as another connection, to Hench Co's private intranet, made itself available. Wade grinned in delight and began to look through the company's information. There was a lot of interesting stuff in there. Most big corporations were pretty shady, but with Hench Co, that went double. But he wanted the security network – another few moments of clicking and he had it. Wade had to be careful his ego didn't get too out of control at moments like these. If it was online, or even if it had a computer chip in it somewhere, Wade would get control of it sooner or later. He flipped through camera views, looking for footage of Jack Hench. Soon, he found a feed coming from the man's office.

"_There_ you are. Now, let's see where you go all day."

The security feed was live, but Hench didn't seem to be doing anything interesting as he sat at his desk; Wade accessed archival security footage, deciding to pick yesterday as a starting point. He fast forwarded through the footage, sometimes switching feeds as Hench went around various parts of Hench Co's headquarters, sometimes talking to Hench Co scientists, sometimes customers, but often sitting in his office. He seemed to sit in his office a lot, actually.

The security footage ran on, a little clock in the corner telling Wade what time of day it had been. As he fast forwarded, the time ran close to Hench Co's closing time. He was interested in seeing where Hench would go after closing hours. As he watched, however, the closing time passed as Hench remained seated at his desk. The time ticked onwards, and in the footage, he saw the sun setting through Hench's office window.

Still, the man sat.

The office was drenched in darkness. Wade ran the footage faster, and before long, the sun rose again, dispelling the office with sunlight. The whole time, Jack Hench sat quietly in his desk chair, looking blankly ahead. Wade looked at the time in the corner of the security footage; since rewinding it to yesterday's date, he had definitely just played through to this morning.

Hench had sat there, staring, the entire night.

"Now _that's_ weird."

Dennis or no Dennis, Wade got the feeling he wouldn't be able to catch his mom downstairs for _Ballroom with B Actors _anytime soon.

XX

Ron was buried up to his neck in homework. He had the weekend, but for the first time in as long as he could remember, he was actually starting a little early. Maybe it was because things were finally getting back on track with Kim. It wasn't ideal – they weren't getting back together, after all – but he knew both of them were in a different place now. And after giving it some thought, he knew there had been warning signs in their relationship even before Shego came along, some of it coming from his own attitude. Ron knew he'd never be a type A like Kim was, but he still wanted to improve. Graduation was coming up soon, and he had to think about the future, so now was as good a time as any to start getting his act together.

That, and it was too late to call Felix or Monique and see if they wanted to hang out more.

He had done once or twice in the last couple of weeks, especially since he and Monique had been bonding over the whole thing with KP going through her weird phase. It wasn't too late to bother Kim, as she had gotten used to him bothering her at all hours of the night for no reason, but he hesitated about that. He and Kim were patching things up, and he didn't want to push it. That, and he remembered what happened _last_ time he came over to her house asking for homework help.

Developing a work ethic, unfortunately, was harder than Ron had expected. Slogging through his homework was wearing him down, and Ron was thinking about finding an excuse to take a break – maybe go downstairs and grab some cheese sticks if Rufus wasn't already munching them down there while he watched TV. In a pleasant coincidence, Ron's phone rang. He hoped it was one of his friends.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Ron, this is Anne Possible."

"Oh, hey Mrs. Dr. P! What's the haps?"

"Kim hasn't gotten home yet tonight – we were wondering if you two were on some kind of mission, or if she was over at your house. James thought he saw the two of you running off just outside the living room window."

Ron frowned. He didn't remember being outside Kim's house, or running off anywhere. He had said goodbye to her at his house, from what he could remember. "I don't remember running off anywhere – but she's not over here. I thought she went home. We were at Bueno Nacho together earlier, and she was on her way home when we got to my house. She never came in?"

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line.

"No, she didn't."

"Weird. Maybe she decided to do a solo mission."

"You could be right. We were just a bit worried. We're used to her going on missions, but she usually tells us, and she's been gone so often lately, it seemed a little strange – she even told James she'd be watching some _Captain Constellation_ with him tonight."

"I can call Wade up and see if he knows where she is. Call you guys back later, okay?"

"Sure, Ronald. Thanks!"

"No problemo, Mrs. Dr. P."

Ron hung up the phone and reached into his pocket for the Communicator, before realizing he had left it in another pair of pants. Probably one of the old ones laying in a big heap in front of his dresser drawer. Kim carried her Kimmunicator everywhere after having used it for so long, but Ron still needed to get used to his. He began to rummage through the clothing pile, catching a few whiffs of an odor which told him he really needed to do some laundry, before finally feeling the blocky weight of the Communicator. He was just about to take it out of its pocket when, to his surprise, it began to ring. Apparently Wade had beaten him to the chase.

"Hey, Wade," he said as the boy's face flickered into view. "What's going on?"

"We might have a problem."

"I was just about to call you, actually. Kim's mom just called me and said she didn't get home after I left her earlier tonight. I was wondering if you knew whether she was on a mission or something."

"Not one I sent her on," said Wade. "And get this – I was just doing a little research, and I'm pretty sure Jack Hench's secretary was right. I think the Jack Hench who's at Hench Co right now is a synthodrone. And those henchmen you were fighting in the hospital parking lot that stole the MRM? I bet you they were synthodrones, too. I think Cyrus Bortel is up to something."

Ron began to get a bad feeling. When Kim's parents had called him, he wondered if she was going back to visit Shego – maybe the two of them weren't as over as she had claimed. While he felt bad for doubting her, he was starting to think maybe that would have been the _best_ case scenario. Now that he thought about, something about what Mrs. Dr. P. had said seemed even stranger. "Kim's mom said her dad saw us outside his living room window," he told Wade. "But I don't remember reaching her house at all. She left when we got to my house."

There was a long silence on Wade's end.

"That's weird," he finally said.

"Call her Kimmunicator."

"I tried right before I called you. No answer. I'm trying to pick up its signal right now."

Ron waited a moment while tech friend got an answer.

"Yeah, that's not good."

"What's not good?"

"It's at Cyrus Bortel's lab."

Maybe Kim had figured out something was up and visited Bortel's laboratory on her own – but Ron thought that seemed a little strange. Sure, the two of them hadn't been going on any missions since Kim and Shego had been together, but now that things were on the mend, wouldn't she have mentioned something to him? Or at least Wade? And hadn't Global Justice told them Cyrus Bortel's synthodrone shenanigans were through after Kim stopped by his place to chew him out over Kimberly Anne's creation?

"Kim might need help, Ron."

Ron got up and began to pace around the room. "Um, Wade? I know the Ron Man is supposed to be cool and all that, but I dunno if I can do a whole lot by myself against those synthodrones. The ones in the parking lot were pretty hardcore, and me and Kimberly Anne had Global Justice backing us up then. I mean, should we call-"

At the thought of calling Global Justice, Ron trailed off. First their shady behavior with the MRM, and now it turned out Cyrus Bortel was up to no good, despite the fact that Wade had told him a while ago that GJ took care of everything. They shouldn't have trusted that crazy scientist, of course. The moodulators, and then the sex bots – the man had always been playing havoc with Ron and Kim's relationship, now that Ron thought about it. If building a synthodrone to look like his best friend and selling it to his worst enemy to use as a pleasure toy wasn't a supervillainish thing to do, what was? Maybe Bortel had just been lying to everyone, and GJ was out of the loop just like Ron and Wade had been.

Or maybe, whatever was going on, they were in on it.

"I don't know," said Wade. "You think we can trust them?"

Apparently Wade was thinking the same thing as him.

If Kim was in trouble, they had to move fast. Ron knew Wade would be backing him up, but he didn't have Kimberly Anne helping out, seeing as she had turned out to be more than a little unstable. That was assuming she wasn't working for Bortel, too. Maybe Global Justice was their only bet. Ron considered his options, and a strange idea crossed his mind, although he almost retched just at the thought of it. Still, when he was between a rock and a hard place...

Ron heard someone talking downstairs. Two people, actually.

"Wade," he said as he walked up to his door, "hold on a sec."

Communicator in one hand, Ron opened his door a crack and poked his head out into the upstairs hallway, listening to the sound of voices coming from downstairs, drifting up and just barely penetrating into his room. His father was speaking to someone. He recognized the other person's voice immediately.

_ Is Ron home?_

_ Yes, he's upstairs. And by the way, I'm glad the two of you were getting along again!_

_I'm glad too!_

There was a brief pause.

_ What's that in your hand?_

Another pause.

_Oh, this? It's just something for a science project we're working on together._

And with that, the sound of Kim's voice trailed off.

A moment later, and Ron began to hear footsteps pattering up, one by one, on the stairway at the far end of the hallway. He felt an unsettling chill go down his spine. That had been Kim's voice, alright. But it obviously couldn't be Kim Possible. And that left only one other option.

The footsteps grew louder.

Ron edged back into the room, but kept the door open just a crack as he peered out. The hallway was dark, but a light was on downstairs – a shadow swayed unsteadily against the far wall, growing larger. Finally, a dark shape appeared at the top of the stairs. It stopped. It turned. It looked down the hall, its face obscured in shadow. He could make out two things: one was a healthy head of hair, flowing down past the shoulders and tinged in red where the light from downstairs illuminated it.

The other was the glint of a needle, protruding from a syringe held in her right hand.

"Ron?" a voice called softly. "Are you down there?"

A burst of fear surged up in him. Ron withdrew into his room, closed the door as quietly as he could and locking it, but it still felt impossibly loud. He looked wildly around the room. What to do? What was going on? There was no doubt in his mind; that was Kimberly Anne, coming to visit him, but why? After his talk with Wade about Cyrus Bortel, his imagination began to run wild. Cyrus Bortel was out to get him after kidnapping Kim.

Or maybe Kimberly Anne wasn't even working for Bortel, and she wanted to know where the real Kim was so she could replace her. When they had been going on missions together, it seemed like that was all Kimberly Anne talked about sometimes. What the real Kim was like. Ron looked over at his window, opened a crack to let in some cool evening air.

"Wade?" he said hurriedly into his Communicator. "You still there?"

"Yeah, what's up, Ron?"

"Something bad, that's what's up!"

Ron heard footsteps coming down the hall until they reached the door.

"Ron," said the voice, "can you let me in?"

"Um, why?"

"We need to go to Cyrus Bortel's laboratory."

That was all Ron needed to hear. He ran for the window, opening if the rest of the way and scrambling through. His movement must have been enough to tell Kimberly Anne he was escaping, because he heard the sound of an ominous crack behind him. He froze for a split second on the roof below his window, looking back in his room just in time to see the door go flying inwards with another thundering crack of splintered wood. He barely caught a glimpse of Kimberly Anne in the entry way, a needle held menacingly in her hand, before he backed away and fell straight off the roof.

Kimberly Anne yelled something out before he dropped, but so did Wade, and Ron missed both of their comments as he fell through the air. Fortunately, he was lucky enough to plummet straight into a clump of bushes. Ron got up – no bones broken, but the twigs were really scratchy. He scrambled away from the bushes before realizing he had dropped the Communicator in them. He was about to go back, but he couldn't see it in the darkness, and he caught a glimpse of someone up in his bedroom window looking down. He dashed across the yard, risking another glance back to see Kimberly Anne on the roof now, about to jump down.

Ron left the yard and headed for another lot as he tried to weave past some trees and fencing to throw off his pursuer, but he had barely gotten out of his own back yard before he heard the telltale _thump_ of the syntho-Kim landing on the ground behind him. Years of evading enemies on missions with Kim would help him – not to mention his time on the football team. But Kimberly Anne was fast. He had seen her in action. As he ran through his neighborhood, heedless to where he was going, he didn't dare look back, but there was no ignoring the rustle of leaves behind him, or the patter of feet on asphalt when he darted across a road.

"Ron, wait! I just want to talk!"

Yeah, _that_ was convincing. At some point, Ron realized he wouldn't be able to outrun his pursuer. She'd catch up. He needed somewhere to go, someplace to escape. He hit an abandoned lot, filled with dense trees, and risked a quick look back as he ran through. He knew she wasn't far behind, but she wasn't in sight – at least for a moment, he had evaded her – and he took the opportunity to dart in amongst the trees and change direction. He needed to double back.

Crouching behind a stone gatepost in someone's yard, Ron looked out at a road he had just passed and saw a car driving by. Its headlights illuminated Kimberly Anne, who was looking left and right. She entered the overgrown empty lot, now about a dozen yards to Ron's left. Ron waited a moment, and then darted back out across the road in the direction of what looked like his house. He had gotten a little confused with all the running around; it would be embarrassing if he was wrong. He had one idea on how to escape, and while it wasn't a good one, he didn't have anything else up his sleeve.

Past another lot with a creepy looking garden gnome which Ron had to leap over, past a few trees, past his back lawn again, and Ron skirted around the side of his house to the front yard. There it was; his scooter. Even before he leaped on, Ron had his doubts, but he needed to get out of his neighborhood. Find a pay phone somewhere, call Wade up. Ron glanced down and realized he had lost his pants sometime during his mad dash through the neighborhood earlier. No time to do anything about that, unfortunately.

He brought the scooter sputtering to life, and was just about to maneuver out of his driveway when he caught sight of Kimberly Anne barreling towards him from the adjacent lot.

"Oh, come on!"

Ron barely had time to flinch before the synthodrone knocked him off his scooter, sending the two of them sailing to the driveway's pavement. Ron tried to struggle, but he knew it was no use; Kimberly Anne pinned him firmly down. He waited for the inevitable: a sharp needle, plunging into his skin. His eyes were closed in fear. He'd probably need a new pair of pants in a minute, at least if he had been _wearing_ pants.

But nothing was happening. Ron opened his eyes.

"I told you, I just wanted to talk!"

Ron looked at Kimberly Anne in confusion. She didn't seem to be holding that needle he had seen, at least. Had he been imagining it? Both her hands were pinning his arms down, but after a moment, she got up and released him, probably knowing he wouldn't be able to outrun her. "Where's the needle?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that. I was supposed to inject you with tranquilizer."

She wasn't doing a good job of convincing him she just wanted to talk. Ron took a step back.

"No, that's what my creator sent me to do – he wants me to kidnap you and bring you back to his laboratory. But I don't want to do that. I want to work with you!"

"Um, kinda hard for me to ignore how you tried to kill my ex-girlfriend. That's not a great way to start a new working relationship, you know."

"I was confused! I've had some time to think about that. And I thought she tried to kill me first."

Ron looked over her skeptically. He still wasn't sure he believed her; but then again, they _did_ have a history together. And she could have easily killed him right then and there on the pavement, or picked him up and dragged him off. And there had always been something about Kimberly Anne that seemed trustworthy. Once again, Ron wondered if he was just letting himself be duped by the familiar face and the friendly demeanor. But if he was going to save Kim Possible, he could use any ally he could get.

Maybe it was worth giving her a chance. What did he have to lose?

"Then what do you want to do?" he asked.

"Stop Cyrus Bortel!"


	20. To the Rescue?

**To the Rescue?**

XX

Just like the old days. Sitting around the table, talking about how to defeat their next enemy. Shego had always seen the giant communications screen looming over their control room as a security threat, but out of all the faces she had expected to see flickering into view, unannounced and uninvited, Kim's little tech helper was near the bottom of that list. She and her brothers listened as Wade Load finished giving them a quick update.

"So what do you think?" he asked.

Shego wasn't sure what to think. Teaming up with Ron Stoppable; it wasn't how she had expected her night to end up. To be honest, she didn't have anything in particular against Stoppable, not that she particularly liked him or had anything in common with him. But he wouldn't be useful on this mission. And she couldn't imagine why he would want to work with her, after what she had done to him. She wasn't _guilty_, no way – guilt wasn't something Shego had time for – but she knew she essentially stolen Kim from him. Still, maybe working with him was another way of turning a new leaf. And maybe Kim would be impressed if she saved him. She was going to visit Bortel anyway, regardless of Wade's plans.

"Alright," she said. "I'll do it."

"Thanks. Better hurry up. I haven't been able to get in contact with Ron after I heard Kimberly Anne's voice over the communicator, but his signal is flying all over the neighborhood. Ron's pretty fast, but from what he and Kim have told me, that synthodrone you ordered from Bortel is dangerous."

"Yeah, yeah," said Shego, a little irritated at the boy's tone. "I'll be there soon."

She wondered what Wade had meant by a 'signal' – did he have his friend chipped? The thought amused her, but before she could ask, the viewing screen flickered back into blackness. Shego turned back to her brothers, although she half-expected Cyrus Bortel's face to flicker into view at any moment, cackling with dire warnings that their rescue attempt would fail. Probably right when they were at a pivotal point in their plan, too. Fortunately, the screen was silent, and it wasn't like they had any plan to speak of. Even Wade didn't have much to tell them beyond 'Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable are in trouble.'

"Why should we go with Shego?" asked Mego. "Okay, so maybe we know Kim Possible could have been kidnapped by Cyrus Bortel now, but that girl can take care of herself, and she's not _our_ ex-girlfriend. And Bortel is out of our jurisdiction! Our job is to protect Go City."

"And me," added the mayor. "Don't forget me!"

"Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable are in danger," said Hego, "and that means we help Shego!"

Shego was surprised to find herself appreciating her big brother's support. She would be paying Bortel a visit regardless of who else came along, and she was not surprised to hear Mego's opposition to the idea, but she hadn't been expecting Hego to be so enthusiastic. She supposed it was only because Kim Possible and her sidekick were involved. Back before she quit Team Go, anytime they talked about strategy when it came to defeating supervillains, she and Hego usually descended into constant bickering. The Wegos avoided the discussions entirely, and Mego occasionally joined the bickering but more often threw baited barbs at both of them until the team gave up and winged it.

"Alright," said Shego. "Well, if we're going to do this, we'll need to be stealthy, because-"

"I disagree," said Hego, slamming his fist on the table. "This Cyrus Bortel is a brand new supervillain – we should take the direct approach. Attack the lair, rescue Kim Possible, and hit him hard with the fist of justice!"

"Um, that would be a _great_ idea," said Shego, "but in case you didn't notice, just one synthodrone almost managed to kick all our asses until we locked it into a vault in Vito's mansion. And it would still be there if it hadn't done us a favor and killed itself for us. Unless we can figure out how to defeat them more easily, how do you think we're going to handle whatever else Bortel has at his lair?"

"Willpower!" exclaimed Hego.

Shego and Mego both grimaced with exasperation while the Wegos watched the proceedings with friendly amusement. The mayor seemed uninterested in the discussion, as if his mind was elsewhere.

Shego tapped a finger on the table. "Look," she said, "Kimmie is my girlfriend, so we do this my way."

"I though you two broke up?"  
"Okay, yeah, technically, but-"

"How can we trust your judgment, then?" asked Hego. "You have a personal stake in this, little sister. I think Kim's kidnapping could be making you a little – well, a little hysterical."

Mego laughed at the comment. "Oh, snap!"

Although she knew she needed to keep her attention on the problem at hand, Shego couldn't help reflexively raising her hand as hot green luminescence began to pulse through the skin. Mego gulped, getting the point, but Hego was oblivious as usual. She knew why he was arguing in the first place – it was the same as it always had been. He had to be in charge, the one calling the shots. He couldn't stand being wrong.

"We're doing it _my_ way, Hego."

Hego shook his head condescendingly and gave a little chuckle. "Shego, I know you haven't been with Team Go for a long time – seems like you've forgotten the hierarchy of command. Well all voted a long time ago, remember?"

Shego definitely didn't remember any vote.

"And as the oldest," he continued, "I have the most experience to bring to the table. The only way Team Go can work together is with a strong leader making the decisions! And strength is my power, see?"

Hego lifted up the table, spilling papers and a couple of sodas to the ground, at which Mego threw up his hands in exasperation. Shego got up as her brother put the table back down, sensing that the argument was going nowhere. She wasn't even sure if it was a good idea to take her brothers along. They'd probably just mess things up, anyway. Foes like Aviarius and the Mathter weren't exactly big league opponents, and while Cyrus Bortel was new, he seemed to have some natural talent to the whole supervillain schtick. Maybe it was better if she did this one solo.

"I'm tired of arguing about this," said Shego. "We're wasting time. And I never thought I'd say this in a million years, but Ron Stoppable is in trouble – we gotta help him before he gets sliced and diced by my sex bot. I'm going right now. You guys can come with me or not, I don't care - but if you're coming with me, once we get Stoppable and go to Bortel's lair, we're not barging in like a bunch of chickens with our heads cut off. We're _infiltrating_."

The group fell silent, and Shego was irritated to see her brothers looking to Hego for a decision. They fell in line too easily. Working with her brothers was already as hard as it had ever been before she left Team Go. The Wegos were friendly enough, but they were still young, and tended to go along with whatever Hego said without questioning. Her older brother was always on her case, always ignoring her advice and attempts at leadership. She wanted to escape from them all over again, and yet she knew that she had to change if she wanted a chance with Kim.

Still, she was amazed to see her older brother sitting down quietly, actually thinking about what she had said. An awkward silence stretched on until Hego punctuated it by gulping loudly. Almost like he was swallowing his pride. He stood up from the table and gave his sister a curt nod.

"We can discuss it more on the way there," he said. "Team Go, to the Go jet!"

Shego was amazed. As far as she was concerned, that was about the closest Hego had ever gotten to admitting she was right about something. So her brothers would be coming along. Maybe Team Go wasn't on the verge of tearing apart again, at least not quiet yet. But as for the jet?

"The jet's a no go," she said. "I'm taking my hovercraft."

"A no go? What do you mean – it's the Go jet!"

"No, it's an expression, it just – _rrrrgh!_"

"But Shego, if you don't take the jet, then the color coding isn't right!"

"Deal with it!"

"The jet is faster than your hovercraft. If we want to save Kim and Ron, time is of the essence."

Shego beat back her rage. Despite being roped into joining her brothers on the jet, she knew Hego was right. "Fine," she snapped. "We go on the jet."

"What?" said the Wegos in unison.

"I said we go on the jet."

"Yeah, but which one of us?"

Shego's eyes bugged out at her two younger brothers, who snickered at their little joke.

"Oh my _God!_"

"What about the mayor?" asked Mego.

"I can take care of mythelf," said Bill Vito, who had been sitting patiently at the table and waiting through the argument. "I need to make a couple of phone callth, anyway. I'm thure people will be contherned after what happened at the party I wath hothting. Conthtituents get thpooked very eathily when they think their politicians have a weak thtance against robot athathins trying to replathe them."

"Excellent," said Hego. "We'll seal off Go Tower in case anyone else is trying to kill you. After all, you've been fairly unpopular in Go City after that residential zoning debacle."

The mayor looked a little irritated at having a sore subject brought up. "Motht of them wanted to move anywayth. Thothe houthes were fire hathards."

Shego wasn't interested in talking anymore, as she was been getting more and more impatient to rescue Kim. She knew someone like the mayor was her responsibility just as much as Kim was – as a member of Team Go, they had always worked closely with the mayor, and if she wanted to be some kind of superhero, she needed to keep people safe, however she felt about them personally – but right now, she couldn't bring herself to care. Kimmie was in danger. That was the only thing that mattered right now.

And Stoppable needed some help too, she supposed. Whatever.

Time was ticking away; she had to get to Bortel's lair, maybe figure some kind of weakness when it came to defeating those synthodrones. Shego knew Kim was no damsel in distress – for all she knew, the redhead had already escaped from Bortel's grasp – and yet she felt an overwhelming urge to swoop in and save her lover, like a knight in a shining green and black harlequin suit. She was coming to the rescue.

Maybe she'd never be a hero. But just this once, she could be one for Kim.

XX

Ron, Kimberly Anne, and the real Kim Possible's parents sat together at the kitchen table, glancing occasionally at each other before returning their attention to the plate of crackers and cheese that Mrs. Possible had set out. Ron and Kimberly Anne were waiting for their ride to arrive. Wade had told them he'd have one coming in about fifteen minutes, once Ron fished the communicator out of the bushes where he had dropped it after falling off the roof and let Wade know he was alright.

"So, I hear you tried to kill our daughter," said Kim's father.

The synthodrone nodded cheerily. "That's right! I wanted to replace her and pretend to be her so I could finally be with Shego. But then Shego saw me trying to do it, so I wouldn't have been able to fool her and get what I wanted."

Ron exchanged looks with Kim's parents. The synthodrone did seem to be on his side now, and he was relieved about that, but this was definitely awkweird. Sitting in Kim's house, with Kim's parents, and the sex drone created by Kim's internationally-wanted criminal lover. He wasn't sure how he had gotten to this point. He had told Wade to send the ride to pick him up at Kim's place, since he wanted to let Kim's parents know what was going on, but now that they were in _this_ social predicament, Ron was beginning to wonder if it would have been better to just call them.

"I see," said James with a cough. "So, um – you're not going to try to kill Kimmie-cub anymore?"

"No, I'm not."

"You've learned why it's wrong?" asked Anne, trying to be helpful.

"I think so. The thing you guys call 'morality' confuses me. But now I think maybe Shego would be happier if I helped Ron save Kim – then Shego might want to be with me. I'd be acting more like Kim Possible, since she saves people and fights supervillains."

Ron noticed Kim's parents frowning. Probably because Kimberly Anne didn't quite seem to understand why killing Kim was wrong yet. She seemed to be motivated mainly by self-interest, or love for Shego, or some intertwining of those two things, and she made her decisions based on how she could achieve that. Ron thought it made her a bit of a wild card, but she seemed to be honest enough about her intentions, and they needed everyone they could get on their side if Cyrus Bortel had more synthodrones like her in his lair.

Ron Wade about to call Wade up again and check the ETA on his ride, when the uncomfortable cloud around the table was blown away by the cutting ring of the doorbell. Ron got up and left the kitchen table to answer it. He answered the door, wondering who it would be – maybe Berenice. Or maybe Wade had decided to call Global Justice, despite their misgivings, and what was why he had been kind of vague about who he was sending. Instead, Ron opened the door to find the absolute last person he wanted to see, short of maybe Cyrus Bortel himself.

"Shego?"

Ron gaped for a moment while Shego stood with a smirk. He regained his senses and tried to slam the door shut again, but Shego managed to dart her foot out and block it right before it closed. "Ow!" she yelled. "Dammit, that hurt worse than I was expecting."

"You'll never take me alive, Shego!"

"Cool it down a minute, moron. I'm not here to fight you. Wade sent me to pick you up."

Ron let go of the door – not so much in response to what Shego had said, but more because there was no way he was holding it shut against Shego's strength, now that she had snaked an arm though. He took a few steps back into the entryway of Kim's home, still tensed for a fight. "Wade?" he said. "How is that-"

"He called me and gave me the update on Princess. I'm here with my brothers."

Ron hesitantly approached the door and looked over her shoulder; sure enough, Shego's brothers were also standing a few feet behind her. They waved awkwardly. Ron nodded back to them. He felt his brain doing more loops than a mouse running a wheel. What was Shego doing with her brothers? Were they all synthodrones – was Drakken in on this, too? He pulled his communicator from his pants pocket and called up Wade, while Shego stood in the doorway and rolled her eyes in exasperation. But Ron didn't care. He needed some confirmation on this one.

"She's on our side now," said Wade, before Ron even said anything. Apparently he had anticipated Ron calling him up and complaining. "I saw something Go City's local news the other day about her rejoining Team Go, so I think we can trust her. And I knew she'd want to help if Kim was kidnapped by Cyrus Bortel. You need all the help you can get, Ron."

"I know that! But not _evil_ help!"

"Oh, give me a break," groaned Shego.

Ron glared at her for another moment, and then decided there was no point in fighting it. Wade was right, after all. "Alright, we're off," he told Wade. "I'll keep you up to date."

"Good luck!"

Ron closed the communicator connection. He was just about to ask her if she was ready to go when Shego took a surprised step back; Ron turned to see Kimberly Anne emerging from the kitchen, along with Kim's parents. The three of them stared at her, two with displeased frowns and one with a cheery smile.

"What the hell?" asked Shego. "What is she doing here?"

She pointed at the synthodrone, and Ron held up a hand to hold her off. "Hold on," he said. "She's changed – she wants to help us rescue Kim now."

"That's a pretty big flip after wanting to throttle her earlier."

"I'm sorry," said Kimberly Anne. "I was confused. I thought if I could replace Kim without you knowing, you'd take me back – but I realize that was the wrong choice to make now."

Shego seemed to quiet down, but Ron could tell she didn't seem convinced.

"Shego," said Kim's father. "Why are you here?"

"I'm here to help save Kim."

"Oh. Well, thank you."

Ron could tell that Kim's parents didn't know exactly what to say to their guest, even if she was leaving in a minute. They shared Ron's skepticism towards Kim's relationship with a woman who had previously been her arch enemy. Although it was strange that she was here with her brothers. Ron thought she hated her brothers. Maybe she was just joining them temporarily to help rescue Kim – and yet, Wade had said he heard about her joining Team Go before he even called her up to help with the rescue. Was Shego actually trying to change? Ron had trouble wrapping his head around the thought. Even when she had been Miss Go, he felt like had been hallucinating sometimes. Seeing Shego as a good guy was just plain hard to visualize.

Shego cleared her throat, still looking at Kim's parents – but Ron realized she was actually looking at her former synthodrone lover, standing between them. "So, I see you've met, uh -" she faltered. "I see you've met the syntho-Kim."

"I like to be called Kimberly Anne now," said the synthodrone.

"Oh. Gotcha. Anyway," said Shego, laughing apologetically at Kim's parents, "see, the thing is, I had to make her because of some – well, the thing is-"

Kimberly Anne interrupted her. "They already know you made me so you could have a replacement for Kim Possible to fulfill your sexual urges!" she said enthusiastically. "I told them all about it!"

Ron laughed nervously, but cut it off abruptly when it was obvious no one else was saying anything, although he caught a vague snicker coming from behind Shego. Her brother Mego, he was pretty sure. Kim's parents tried to smile politely. Deciding the conversation was over, Ron stepped out of the front door and beckoned for Kimberly Anne to join him. "See you later, Mr. Dr. P, Mrs. Dr. P. We're off to save Kim!"

Kim's father waved them off. "Alright Ronald. It was, um – it was nice to see you again, Shego."

Ron and Kimberly Anne joined Shego and her brothers as they headed for the Go Jet, which was parked in the middle of the street. It was kind of a strange sight. Ron wondered if the neighbors had been annoyed at a jet touching down in the middle of their neighborhood. But then again, when you lived in the same neighborhood as Kim Possible, weird stuff tended to happen sometimes.

Shego's brothers and Kimberly Anne walked ahead, the synthodrone awkwardly avoiding her former lover's gaze, and Ron noticed Shego trailing alongside him as the two of them walked in back. "Are you sure we can trust her?" she said. "After what I saw in the hospital parking lot-"

"She could have killed me," said Ron. "And she didn't. Besides, we need all the help we can get."

They were interrupted by Hego, who had reached the jet first. "I'm piloting the jet!" he yelled.

"Hey," said Shego, "you weren't the one piloting it when we got here."

"Shotgun."

"You can't call shotgun on piloting the jet, Hego! You-"

"Just did!"

Shego gaped as her brother scrambled into the jet's open cockpit before she could raise any more objections. Ron looked at her and gulped, flinching for a moment on the off chance that she was about to throw a ball of green plasma at him out of sheer irritation. The two of them climbed on board the jet, not wanting to waste any more time. Shego's little encounter with Kimberly Anne and Kim's parents had been painful enough, but Ron got the feeling that it would be nothing compared to his ride in the jet.

Oh, the things he did for Kim.

XX

Something about being alone in Go Tower was a little eerie. Wandering through empty blue-tinted halls, looking up at the dark corners of vaulted ceilings, checking the main entrance to make sure it didn't open; all of it put Bill Vito on edge. Hego had reassured him that only Team Go, with their special meteor-derived powers, could access the tower and get inside, but it didn't do much to calm Vito down.

His case of raw nerves was mostly due to his near-death experience with that clone, of course. The thing had looked _exactly_ like him. To be honest, though, despite the appearance, it wasn't very convincing otherwise. Vito had thought something about it seemed off – something in the behavior, the way it talked – now that he thought of it, the synthodrone hadn't been given his lisp. Cyrus Bortel was sloppy, that was for sure. But it was a close physical imitation. Far too close for comfort. If Bortel had remembered to add the lisp, and maybe tweaked it a little more, the average person probably would not have been able to tell the difference.

After being such a generous customer for the man, how could Bortel turn around and do this to him – whatever he was trying to do? It put Vito in a foul mood just thinking about it. Bortel was trying to pull off some kind of power grab, but he wasn't going to get away with it. Especially not after that synthodrone had killed his poor Debra. Okay, so maybe Debra was also a synthodrone, but that was besides the point. The man was going to _pay._

It was time to exercise his powers as a member of the Board of Secret Shareholders.

Bill found a secluded room in Go Tower, far from any entrances in case Team Go suddenly reappeared. He usually preferred dealing with GJ administrative business on a secure line in his mansion; although he had a secure cell phone with him, it wasn't ideal. Usually all GJ business was handled during Dr. Director's infrequent private meetings with the Board, anyway.

But this was a bit more urgent than most of their business. It was unlikely anyone was snooping, and the cell phone's signal was rerouted through a satellite system. If Cyrus Bortel was really up to something involving synthodrone doppelgangers, there could be serious trouble brewing. Maybe he had targets beyond Go City mayors and teen superheroes, for instance. Global Justice was a natural target. And Bill didn't want his position at GJ being compromised.

Maybe he wasn't the de facto head of the Board of Secret Shareholders, but he was proud to be a member. He and his associates called the shots. In today's world, they had more power than almost anyone. Governments weren't really the power players, anymore – it was multinational corporations and other international organizations that pulled the strings behind the scenes. And he wasn't about to give that up to some punk scientist turned supervillain wannabe.

There was a more formal procedure for arranging meetings between Dr. Director and the board, but seeing as he wasn't on the secure line from his mansion, Bill wanted to bypass that and call the Director privately. Dealing with the other board members could take time, and while Dr. Director didn't know his identity as a member, Bill didn't have to introduce himself personally. He waited as the phone rang. It rang a long time.

"Hello?" came a voice, just as he was about to hang up. The voice was not female.

"Who is thith?" asked Bill.

There was a long pause on the other end of the line.

"This is Will Du, acting Director of Global Justice. Who is _this_?"

"That'th clathified. I need to talk to Dr. Director, not her thecond-in-command."

"I'm afraid she is not here at the moment. Once again, who is this? How did you get access to a private Global Justice office line?"

The mayor swore silently. This was not turning out how he had expected – at worst, he had expected to get an answering machine, not some GJ grunt who wasn't even supposed to have any indirect contact with the board. He wondered if he had been rash in calling so unexpectedly when he was inadvertently locked in Team Go's tower, but it was too late now. Either way, it was Dr. Director's job to make sure there were no leaks – wherever she was, once she got back to GJ Middleton headquarters, she'd take care of things if Du asked too many questions.

"Look," he said, "we have a thitchuation with Thyrus Bortel. You need to tell Dr. Director that she needth to deal with him. She'll know what to do. Tell her thith is priority Thero Thee Thathquatch."

"What?"

"Thero Thee Thathquatch!"

"I have no idea what you're saying."

"Thero ath in the number before one, Thee ath in the letter after Y, Thathquatch ath in Bigfoot!"

"Zero Z Sasquatch?"

"_Yeth!_"

Bill flipped the cellphone shut and returned it angrily to his pocket. Talking to Will Du hadn't been a good idea, perhaps, but he was angry. No one killed his beloved blonde companion – not a mere sex bot, as one of his aides had called it so impudently the other day – and then tried to kill _him_, to boot. He was Bill Vito, Mayor of Go City! He didn't trust Shego and her team to pull anything off, after he had seen them nearly falling apart at the seams at their conference table earlier. Not to mention the fact that just _one_ synthodrone had been almost impossible to take out. No, this situation needed surprise. With the information Dr. Director had uploaded to the board after their last meeting, hopefully Bortel wouldn't see it coming. Two could play the synthodrone assassin game.

As soon as Dr. Director got those orders, Cyrus Bortel would go from thupervillain to thero.

XX

Middleton Hospital's security tapes told him nothing that he hadn't already seen earlier, but Will Du looked over them again as he sat at a desk in the middle of the Global Justice's command center. He had seen them before, and he had already been getting more suspicious by the hour, but that strange phone call was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Cyrus Bortel? The man wasn't even a supervillain. And yet...

Dr. Director had been out sick for the last few days after leaving in a hurry, which left a lot of things for Will to take care of, since after the fight at the hospital when the MRM was stolen, she had been looking into the incident herself. She had left a message about being sick, but Will was suspicious. Since when did Dr. Director leave such casual messages? And since when did Dr. Director get sick, for that matter? Usually, the woman was dedicated to her work.

He had been suspicious enough, in fact, to send a team of agents headed by Ullman to visit Dr. Director's apartment after she didn't return any calls. Ullman had returned that morning; she wasn't there. It was possible she was just taking some alone time, but Will didn't think so. The whole situation stank of wrongdoing. As far as he was concerned, Dr. Director was missing.

And the more he watched the henchmen on the hospital security cameras, the more he began to have a nagging suspicion that the anonymous caller, whoever he was, was right.

Dr. Haytham, in the science division, had run his tests on the Kim Possible synthodrone and found no reason to assume she was being controlled by Cyrus Bortel. The synthodrone seemed to be developing a mind of its own. He didn't trust it, but Dr. Director was fascinated by it. But maybe the synthodrone had been able to mask it somehow. And now that Will thought about it, now that he was looking at the security tapes again, the way the mysterious henchmen in the hospital parking lot moved, the way they didn't get tired – there was definitely something more than human about them. Global Justice had looked into their usual crop of supervillains, but most of them had been ruled out for one reason or another. Alibis, lack of history of working with henchmen. Cyrus Bortel wasn't even a supervillain at all.

But maybe he had decided to get a new hobby.

Will was more tense than he had been in years. Something was definitely going on, and with Dr. Director gone, it was his job to figure it out. According to GJ regulations, he was acting head of Global Justice's Middleton Branch if Dr. Director was indisposed for more than 48 hours. He was used to following orders, doing things by the book, and all of a sudden he was being thrust into a leadership position – he knew his indecisiveness and passion for precision and detail – some called it anal retentiveness, but they were just sloppy - had probably slowed things down already. He should have known something was wrong more quickly, the moment he got that strange sick message from Dr. Director. Although he hated to admit any kind of weakness, Will couldn't help wishing he had someone like Kim Possible around to help solve problems.

Or maybe her tech genius friend could help. Wade and Ron had not been in contact with Global Justice ever since the MRM incident – Will knew it was because they no longer trusted the organization. He couldn't blame them, but it was a bit of a problem. Maybe it was time to get an update, and see if Wade knew anything he didn't. He dialed the boy up on his terminal.

"Hello?"

Wade's face came into view, looking a little distracted.

"Hello, Wade Load. This is Will Du, acting Director of Global Justice."

"Acting director? What?"

"That is what I wanted to call you about. Dr. Director has been missing for the last few days, and I was hoping I could get some help from you in terms of tracking down her location."

The boy paused for a long time, giving Will what he felt was a very suspicious look.

"Why should I help you?"

To be honest, Will didn't know quite how to answer that question.

"Because – because I am asking?"

"You lied to us about Kimberly Anne, you know."

It took Will Du a moment to remember who Kimberly Anne _was_, until he realized that was what the Kim Possible synthodrone was calling itself nowadays. "What are you talking about?" he said.

"You said she was fine, and then she attacked Kim Possible near the hospital!"

"What? I was unaware of this. Nobody was lying to you, Wade – we did a scan of her and did not find anything that suggested she was being controlled by Cyrus Bortel."

"Well, we don't think she _was_ being controlled by Bortel when she did that. She wanted to replace Kim to get back with Shego, but once Shego caught her in the act, she realized that wasn't going to work. Also, she might be developing a conscience, but we're not sure. Either way, she's working with us now."

Will felt his head begin to hurt.

"So you're saying Cyrus Bortel is _not_ involved? I got a call that-"

"Oh, he's involved. Kim Possible has been kidnapped, and I think he's responsible."

"Kim Possible has been kidnapped? Why was I not kept up to date on this?"

"Um, because we don't trust you anymore?"

Will stammered for a moment before deciding he had no response to that. He was definitely going to need a couple of aspirin before the night was through. "I assumed Bortel was involved," he said. "He must have kidnapped Dr. Director as well. I was looking at the hospital security tapes, although I didn't see any fight between Kim and her synthodrone clone, but I thought the henchmen seemed very synthodrone-like in behavior, and I got a tipoff about him from an anonymous caller just a few minutes ago. I'm considering sending a team out to visit Bortel's laboratory once-"

"Already on it."

"What?"

"I've got Ron, Kimberly Anne, and a reunited Team Go on their way there."

"Reunited? Shego is with them now?"

"That's right. And I figured out the synthodrone thing from the hospital tapes before you did. Feel free to send a team, though. We'll meet up at Bortel's lair."

Wade hung up before Will could give him a response. That last comment, about figuring out the synthetic nature of the henchmen who had attacked the hospital, seemed like a cheeky jab at his own problem solving abilities. Will was left feeling a little frazzled by the sudden influx of information. Why was he so out of the loop? Had Dr. Director not been keeping him up to date? Or did they really rely on Kim Possible, her sidekick, and Wade Load _that_ much?

He turned from his terminal to look out over the control room. A few agents were milling around, but he did not see who he was looking for. He pressed an intercom button and spoke into the microphone: "Dr. Haytham, Agent Ullman, please report to the control room."

A few moments later and the two men arrived, waiting for orders.

"First of all, I received a strange phone from an anonymous caller earlier. He said something about Cyrus Bortel, and mentioned the code "Zero Z Sasquatch." Do either of you know what that refers to?"

Ullman shrugged apathetically, but Dr. Haytham seemed to respond to Will's question with a furtive look. Will narrowed his eyes. "What is it, Haytham?"

"Sir, it's – it's the code that activates our control over the Kim Possible synthodrone, with the code we added to her while she and Ron Stoppable visited our facility. Was it Dr. Director who called?"

"No," said Will, confused. "Someone looking for Dr. Director."

"What did he say about Cyrus Bortel?"

"That we needed to take care of him."

The more Will Du thought about it, the more out the loop he felt. He realized he didn't really know any details of just what Global Justice had _done_ to the synthodrone while Dr. Director had taken her and Ron Stoppable in for a meeting. From the sound of it, whoever had called on the phone wanted him to take control of the synthodrone and use it to assassinate Cyrus Bortel. The thought send a chill running down Will Du's spine. He knew Global Justice had a lot of leeway for achieving its goals however it wanted, but that seemed extreme. Maybe not that practical, either, if the syntho-Kim was working for them. Maybe the caller had thought the syntho-Kim was with Bortel. Will began to wonder if they could trust the synthodrone like Wade had claimed.

Either way, Will couldn't stomach the idea of assassinating someone, even if they were a fledgling supervillain like Cyrus Bortel. There were rules about that kind of thing. Even if he had Dr. Director and Kim Possible kidnapped – although Will felt his normally stoic demeanor falter at the thought of Dr. Director in danger. He had known the woman for a long time, and the two of them had a close working relationship. But, no – no assassination. He didn't even know who the caller was, after all.

"Ullman," he said, "We need to assemble a team of agents to visit Cyrus Bortel's laboratory. He may have kidnapped both Dr. Director and Kim Possible. We are mounting a rescue mission. Haytham, you are in charge of Global Justice headquarters while we are gone."

The two of them nodded. "About time," said Ullman. "I was gettin' a little bored lately."

"That should change soon."

Will joined his fellow agent as the two of them rounded up more of their top agents to accompany them. He had been indecisive, overthinking things, and from the sound of it, Global Justice had been caught with its pants down, much like a certain sandy-haired sidekick to Kim Possible. But Will was acting director - he needed to take charge. He would deal with the problem. Now was the time for action.

XX

Drakken sat surrounded by empty pizza boxes, soda cans, and tissue paper, strewn about his bedroom. He was in the mountain lair he had been setting up recently without Shego's knowledge, and now that she had left him and joined Team Go, it was clear that his suspicions had been right all along. He and his henchmen ditched the temporary lair for his new one, which Shego – and, more importantly, Kim Possible and Global Justice – were totally unaware of. Instead of carrying out his latest schemes, however, he had been busy sulking.

An old episode of _Agony County_ played on the television, which he had sent Assad Sacke out to buy at the nearest store yesterday. It was the DVD box set of the latest season. Images of teen heartthrobs glowed on the screen, providing the room with its only light. In short, Drakken had not taken Shego's departure well.

"Oh, Brett!" he yelled at the TV. "You don't know what you have with Lisa! You ignorant fool."

Drakken sniffed and sniveled as Brett, inevitably, hooked up with Chloe. Chloe, the simpering goody-two-shoes who didn't deserve Brett's attention when he could have chosen the daring and edgy Lisa instead. Drakken already knew how the episode ended, but he still couldn't help getting sucked in. He turned to his new second-in-command, who sat in the bed beside him, watching the television with a bored stare.

"Why do you think she doesn't want to work with me anymore?" he asked.

Assad shrugged helplessly.

He had ordered his current second-in-command to give him some company in his fragile state, but the man wasn't doing a very good job of cheering him up. Maybe Assad was just getting tired of hearing that question. Drakken knew he had asked it a number of times already, but he still couldn't think of an answer. A supergenius like him, a scientific wunderkind, having created groundbreaking inventions practically since he was in the womb – although that thought made Drakken grimace. He shouldn't have gone _that_ far. Still, Shego should be so lucky as to have him for a boss!

"Perhaps the lure of Kim's nubile teen flesh was too much for her," Drakken mused, blowing on a tissue as a particularly emotional scene of _Agony County_ began. "After that sex-bot, it was obvious she was some kind of deviant. Not that I didn't try to accept the whole thing, but _Kim Possible_? Everyone has kinks, but give me a break."

"Maybe it's like with me and my wife," suggested Assad. "My third wife, I mean. She was so demanding in bed - I thought things could work out if I just did what she wanted, but she was never satisfied. I didn't want to say no, but once she brought in the bicycle chains, I was too terrified to go to sleep anymore!"

Drakken gave his right hand man a slow, worried look, before turning back to the television. The two of them grew quiet. He was beginning to think Assad definitely wasn't the person to confide in. Not only had he been talking about his _own_ troubles over the last hour or two, but he was beginning to weird Drakken out.

Besides; Drakken didn't need to go over his troubles. When it came down to it, he knew exactly what had gone wrong. Shego kept complaining about his schemes, about how he had lost his touch after the Li'l Diablos, but that wasn't really the problem, and she was being unreasonable, anyway. Long prison sentences followed by the discovery that your partner in crime owned a sex-clone – and then having to deal with the real life model of that sex-clone, your arch enemy, hanging out at your lair and coming out of Shego's bedroom wearing jammies and a bad case of bed head – well, it all had a way of putting a damper on Drakken's creativity.

And besides, what was wrong with lasers?  
But the real problem was not him. It wasn't the two of them, either. It was Shego. She had been growing lukewarm over the whole evil thing lately, and in the back of his mind, Drakken had always worried about her past with Team Go. She hated talking about it, but she _had_ been a superhero. She hadn't even changed her outfit – that in itself should have been a sign of inevitable relapse. And now she had relapsed. Kim Possible had been the trigger, and after a long stint of living a life clean of nasty do-gooderness, Shego had fallen back into her old ways.

She was probably off saving the world and fighting bad guys with her girlfriend right now. Drakken hoped it was Dementor they were fighting, at least.

"You'll be okay," said Assad. "You just have to look on the bright side. And the good thing is, you didn't marry her – at least you didn't lose everything you had like I did, and end up forced to work as a henchman for an evil supervillain. I mean, uh," - Assad stuttered at the sight of Drakken's glare - "not that that's a bad thing! Best thing that ever happened to me, really. So, see, there's a silver lining to every cloud."

"Of course I didn't marry her," said Drakken. "I wasn't even going out with her. She worked for me!"

"Oh. Really?"

"_Yes!_ Why would you think we were in a relationship?"

Assad shrugged. "The way you two bickered all the time – I don't know, I just assumed. Most of the henchmen thought you two were an item. They always talk about what a lucky dog you are for nabbing that piece of green-"

"Enough! You henchmen gossip way too much."

The episode was just about to reach its climax when another henchman burst through the bedroom door. "Sir," he said, "there's something you might want to see on GCTV."

"Not now, Bill!"

Drakken tried to concentrate on the dialogue, irritated by his henchman's interruption, but he had also missed something important that Brett had told Lisa. The episode ended abruptly, and Drakken threw his hands up in rage, smacking them down on the bed and sending trash and debris flying to the floor. "Nnnngh!" he yelled. "Right at the end of m episode!"

"It's a DVD," said Assad. "You could just skip back to the last scene."

"Quiet, Assad. What did you want, Bill?"

Bill stood awkwardly at the door. "Go City Television, sir. You told us to monitor it for news about Shego."

"Oh, yes. Very well."

Drakken waved his henchman away. Assad made as if to get up from the bed, but Drakken waved again. "Not you, nincompoop," he said as he flipped channels on the television. He needed a little emotional support. Just in case it was something crushing. He had been keeping track of Shego – not in a pathetic stalker way, of course, but just to see what she was going to do if she wasn't working for him – and news of her rejoining Team Go was the first crushing blow to his psyche. Maybe now it would be something even worse – like she had decided to return to a lifestyle of evil, but decided Dementor paid better. He shuddered at the thought.

Being a supervillain had some particularly enjoyable perks, such as getting all kinds of television programming for free, and so Drakken had access to Go City's local television programming. He watched as a reporter appeared on screen, speaking in front of what looked like an opulent mansion. The news ticker below her read 'Attack at mayor's mansion!' Drakken leaned forward, listening curiously.

"According to frightened partygoers, the intruder looked just like mayor Bill Vito, except that it was armed with dual swords and swung off a chandelier in order to attack the real mayor and the newly reunited Team Go at the party held in their honor. According to Team Go itself, the alleged synthodrone was finally defeated at the end of a grueling hour-long battle."

Shego's oldest brother, Hego, appeared in a prerecorded clip. "It was an epic battle," he said, "but I managed to subdue the synthodrone with my super strength. We believe it was sent by Cyrus Bortel to assassinate the mayor of Go City. Fortunately, he is now safe in the hands with Team Go."

The video clip had been filmed in the courtyard outside the mansion. Drakken was amused to notice the mayor himself – Bill Vito, according to another message on the news ticker – looking a little frightened as he stood behind Hego, glancing left and right at various bushes in his dim courtyard. Apparently he didn't feel as safe as Hego claimed he was. Drakken's smirk turned to a frown as Shego came into frame, rolling her eyes at her brother's commentary.

After all he had done for her. That was how she repaid him. Working for the enemy. Maybe not his arch enemy, exactly, but in a broader sense, Team Go were generic superhero types. And _boy_, did he hate those types.

From the looks of it, Cyrus Bortel had started some kind of interesting scheme. Sending a synthodrone to assassinate the mayor of Go City – Drakken had to assume it was some kind of power grab, maybe to take over Team Go, seeing as on the few occasions Shego had talked about them, she said they often worked directly under the mayor, and had been put on contract by him to defend the city. Drakken was a little irked by the fact that Bortel was putting some kind of plan into motion using his stolen synthodrone technology, but at the same time, he had to admit that he hadn't thought of the full potential of his synthodrones. Doppelgangers – an interesting application, to be sure. He felt a mix of admiration and jealousy towards Cyrus Bortel.

Now that he thought about it, maybe the syntho-Kim was involved in Bortel's plan, too. Some kind of plant to attack Kim's buffoon of a sidekick, perhaps. It made sense. Replacing one's enemies with clones you could control – it was a plan with a lot of potential, although from the looks of it, Bortel was already screwing things up. Attacking the mayor of Go City without checking to see if he was having a crowded party which would witness everything, for instance. The man was clearly a newbie to nefariousness, in need of a few tips.

The thought of Cyrus Bortel taking action and implementing a plan for what Drakken assumed was world domination began to make him feel a little ashamed. Here he was, crying and binging on pizza and Cocoa Moo, watching reruns of _Agony County_, when he _should_ be taking the world in his hand and squeezing out every last drop of – well, whatever it was he wanted to take from the world. Shego or no Shego, he was Doctor Drakken! Maybe he had been in a bit of a rut lately, but once he got out, who could oppose him? And who did Shego think she was, rejecting _him_?

Drakken began to think it was time to take action.

"Come with me, Assad."

His right-hand man got out of bed with him as he tiptoed over the trash in his bedroom. _I should definitely have Assad clean this out_, he thought as he went through the lair until he reached the control room. His henchmen were still setting things up, still carrying out some construction, but the lair was definitely taking shape; it would be finished in no time. A looming metal tower was beginning to take shape in the center of the cavernous lair, rising up from the rift that ran through it. Soon that tower would be his ticket to world domination.

The lair offered him a place to avoid the prying eye of do-gooders while he carried out his work. And he got the feeling Cyrus Bortel would soon be in need of the same thing.

He sat down at a desk and dialed up Bortel's number after leafing through an address book. He and Shego had worked with Bortel once or twice in the past – when they weren't stealing from him – and, of course, Shego had been over more recently to purchase that stupid sex-bot that had started all this mess in the first place. Once he found the number, he gave his fellow supervillain a call.

"Hello?" said Bortel, picking up after a long wait. "Who is this?"

"This is Doctor Drakken."

"Oh," said the man hesitantly. "I see. What is it that you want?"

"I saw your failed attempt at replacing Bill Vito on the news, Bortel."

The man hesitated. "A mere speed bump on my unstoppable drive to world domination, Drakken."

"I think not. It was in the news, Bortel. Your laboratory isn't exactly well-hidden. You don't think Kim Possible and her sidekick will be coming to stop you?"

"I have already taken care of that."

Drakken paused, wondering what _that_ meant, but his point stood. "Global Justice, then," he said. "Team Go."

Bortel's hesitation was longer this time; Drakken knew the man was realizing his rashness. "You may have a point," he said. "So why are you calling me? To gloat about your supposed superiority?"

"Of course. But not just that, Bortel. You're going to have Global Justice agents breaking into your precious laboratory faster than you can whip up a new batch of moodulators."

"Those actually take several weeks to-"

"Don't interrupt my gloating, Bortel. You're going to have Global Justice agents on you like white on rice. _That_ is what I'm trying to tell you. And probably Team Go as well! You set your plan in motion too early, you weren't stealthy enough, and everyone knows where your lair is. Believe me, even when I have a lair I _think_ is secret" - Drakken tried to overlook the fact that this applied to his current lair - "Kim Possible and her meddlesome associates find it in a matter of hours. What you need, Bortel, is time. And perhaps some advice from one who is wiser in the world of supervillainy."

"What are you saying, Drakken? You want to work with me?"

Now the man was catching on. Drakken would use him for as long as he needed him. Cyrus Bortel had stolen his technology and used it to implement his own world domination plan, and Drakken would be happy to commandeer that plan for himself, turning on Bortel once he got what he wanted. It was really _his_ world domination plan anyway, if he was the one who had supplied the original recipe for the synthodrones. It made perfect sense. What goes around, comes around.

"Yes," he told Bortel. "I believe you should work for me."

"_With_ you."

Drakken's eye twitched a little. "Partners, then," he said reluctantly.

"Very well. What is your plan?"

"Before I agree to work with you, I have one condition."

"And what is that?"

Drakken thought about it. His former right hand woman would hate the very idea, but she no longer worked for him. She had _betrayed_ him. And as far as Drakken was concerned, that meant he was free to do what he wanted.

And he wanted a new henchwoman.

"Those synthodrones you have - can you make those in green?"


	21. Mole

**Mole**

XX

A jagged range of mountains loomed up ahead, past the jet's cockpit window. Ron could see them past the two seats in front of him, in which Shego and Hego were sitting. Hego was piloting the jet – Shego didn't seem to mind, although she was a bit of a backseat driver. Not that she was in the back seat. Ron himself had asked to turn on the radio for some tunes, but apparently the jet didn't have a radio. Some jet.

"Maybe we should play 99 bottles of beer on the wall?" he suggested.

"Maybe we shouldn't."

"Come on, Shego," said her younger twin brothers. "That'd be fun."

Hego turned back to look sternly into the jet's passenger compartments. "I may not be able to pull this thing over, but all of you must concentrate! We're almost to Cyrus Bortel's lair."

Ron looked at the mountains again – they grew larger as the jet cut through the air like a knife, hurtling towards its destination. He knew Bortel's lair was a little farther, but taking the jet had made their journey quick – and he was beginning to feel nervous about fighting synthodrones if they were anything like Kimberly Anne. At least _she_ was on their side now. The jet ride had been short, but tense. Shego being mere feet away from her former Princess replacement was part of it, but it was also Team Go itself. As far as Ron could tell, Team Go – even if it _was_ reunited – was still rough around the edges.

Hego was flying pretty low, probably trying to avoid attracting attention, and Ron felt his stomach shift queasily as he executed an acrobatic maneuver to weave in between two rocky crags as they reached the edge of the mountain range. The Wegos were listening to some kind of portable music player, headphones on as they bobbed their heads – Ron was a little jealous. Mego, seated behind Ron and the Wegos in the very back, had a surly expression. He had been trying his best to avoid listening to or taking part in any conversations.

"Here we are," said Hego. "Just up ahead."

The Go Jet had already passed a number of peaks and valleys, but a particularly noticeable mountain peak jutted up ahead. Hego came in low and at an angle, hoping to avoid notice, and before long, the jet dropped in altitude until it landed on a flat plateau jutting out from a steep mountain slope farther down from the peak. Up the slope, Cyrus Bortel's lair was partially hidden, although Wade had told them there was a winding road leading up to an entrance on the other side of the peak.

Hego powered down the jet and got out of his seat, squeezing awkwardly past the seats behind him as he made his way to the back of the jet and extended the rear boarding ramp. "Alright, team," he said. "Let's get ready to rumble!"

Mego flinched at the comment. "That's what they say at football games, Hego."

"So? It seems appropriate."

"Let's just go."

Ron followed Team Go out of the jet. They began to ascend the rising slope ahead of them, hoping to gain entry to the lair through a less noticeable entrance than the big one Bortel had in front. Wade had some older schematics for Bortel's facilities, since they had never been all that secret in the first place, but they didn't know what kind of new construction he had been up to – according to Kimberly Anne, he had been busy renovating. Which meant they had to rely on her for the layout if anything took them by surprise.

"Alright," said Mego, "so what's the plan, here?"  
Hego pounded his fist into his palm. "Full frontal assault! We should hit them before they know what hit them!"

"How is that even possible?" asked Mego.

"It's a figure of speech, little brother."

Shego had been in front of the group, forging on ahead as the rest followed her, but she stopped abruptly at the sound of her brothers behind her. She turned, a cold expression on her face as her brothers were forced to stop as well. Ron got the impression she was not happy with the conversation. He hoped Team Go wasn't going to fall apart five minutes before they actually got to the lair. That would be just plain pathetic.

"I already said we're going to _infiltrate_," said Shego. "That's why we landed here – it's behind the lair and out of sight. Didn't we all agree to infiltrating?"

Hego scratched his head, trying to remember. "I thought I said I'd think about it."

"I made it pretty clear we're doing this _my_ way, Hego. Do we really have to go over this again? We can't take on a bunch of synthodrones head on if they're anything like the mayor's assassin, and I guarantee you Bortel has synthodrone guards up there waiting for us. We need to get in, rescue Kim, and get out."

Ron had been silent, listening to Shego and her brother bicker, but when he thought about it, they both seemed to have a point. Taking Cyrus Bortel's laboratory-cum-lair head on didn't seem like a wise idea, but at the same time, infiltrating didn't usually work either. He and Kim got caught trying to break into lairs all the time – but since henchmen were so pathetically easy to fight, it didn't really matter. With Bortel's synthodrone formula, new and improved over the run-of-the-mill drones Drakken had used, infiltration could turn into a hairy situation if they were caught.

"I have an idea," he said.

Shego looked at him, as if amazed that he could have an idea about anything. Her brothers had a similar reaction. Ron folded his arms indignantly. He had ideas all the time. What did they know?

"Alright, then," said Shego. "Spill it."

Ron looked thoughtfully at everyone on the plateau, imagining how they could be divided. Having a group of seven people to break in and try to pull off a rescue mission was a lot – they'd just end up falling all over each other. Ron probably more than anyone else, admittedly. But not everyone had to do the rescuing. Maybe a two-pronged strategy would help, like he and his teammate Justin had pulled off at football practice the other day. At least before he was brutally sacked by Preston.

"Why don't we try _both_ plans?"

XX

The broken crags surrounding Cyrus Bortel's mountain laboratory loomed up as Will Du eased the hoverjet lower, towards a small perch. It would barely be enough for his hoverjet, which was a jumbo-sized Global Justice troop carrier. Earlier there had been a broad plateau on the other side of the peak, but a different jet was taking up most of the room there. If Will Du wasn't mistaken, based on GJ's files on Team Go, it was the Go Jet. When it came to rescuing, apparently they had been beaten to the punch.

Sure enough, as he lowered the hoverjet and took it in close enough to catch sight of the front entrance of Cyrus Bortel's lair, he could see a wide entrance opened in the side of the mountain, almost like a yawning cave mouth. He used a holotech screen to zoom in and scope the place out. He caught a glimpse of several figures in blue, purple, and red jumpsuits fighting just inside the entrance; Team Go was already engaging Cyrus Bortel. Will Du looked at his companion, Agent Ullman, who was sitting in the seat adjacent to his own, also looking out the cockpit window.

"Ready, Agent Ullman?"

"It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum!"

Will Du gave him a disapproving look.

"The proper response is 'yes, sir.'"

Ullman looked at him, bemused. "Yes, sir!" he said, adding an elaborate salute that was entirely unnecessary according to Global Justice protocol.

Will decided to let his subordinate's attitude slip as he took the hoverjet in closer, aiming for the flat area just in front of the lair's entrance. Normally he would have tried for a little more stealth, but Will thought time was of the essence here, and a brute force approach with multiple agents was the best strategy. That, and with Team Go on the scene, stealth was already out of the question. The hoverjet landed and powered down as Will stood up from his seat and turned back to look into his hoverjet's hold, where five more agents were along for the ride.

"Ready, agents?" he asked.

"Yes, sir!"

Will nodded as he grabbed a phase rifle from the gun rack in the hold, his fellow agents doing the same, and then descended the jet's ramp after it extended to the rocky ground. Bortel's lair was not far away. He and his fellow agents crossed the small plateau until they reached the front entrance of the lair.

The sound of fighting grew louder as they reached the lair's open front door. Will stepped inside, phase rifle held at firing position, as rocky earth changed to a metallic floor beneath his feet. He immediately saw Team Go fighting with several synthodrones. He motioned for Ullman to follow him as he called out to Hego, Team Go's obvious leader. The twins were doing a good job of using their duplication ability to keep the synthodrones occupied, confusing them with a plethora of punches and kicks, and Hego took the opportunity to break off from the fight for a moment.

"Ah, Global Justice," he said. "I see you've come to provide me with backup!"

Will didn't like the way _that_ was phrased. It was more that they had come to rescue Dr. Director and Kim Possible from Bortel's clutches, and prevent Team Go from being captured along with them. But it was close enough. "We have the layout of Cyrus Bortel's laboratory," he said. "I am unaware of whether or not Bortel has modified it recently to be more like a lair, but usually supervillains keep prisoners in the lower levels."

"Believe me," chuckled Hego, slapping Will obnoxiously on the back. "I know all about supervillains! Kim's technical buddy, that kid Wade Load - he has the schematics to this place, too. And we've got the syntho-Kim on our side. It seems to know the place. It's infiltrating into the prison area with Ron Stoppable and Shego to rescue the captives while we provide a distraction."

Will grunted, slightly irritated. He was definitely late to the party. And it sounded like Wade had been working with Shego and Team Go more than he had been with Global Justice. Not surprising, since relations between GJ and Kim Possible had soured, and Wade seemed to be attached to Kim by the hip. Either way, Will had to make the best of the situation. The synthodrones seemed to be putting up a fight, but as far as Will could tell, there weren't too many of them.

"Agents," he said. "Move in!"

XX

Maybe it was a good plan, but Ron was beginning to wish he hadn't divided up the groups the way he did. Fighting synthodrones couldn't be that bad compared to crawling through endless ventilation shafts and utility tunnels mired in twists, turns, and cobwebs, could it? He was glad they had Kimberly Anne leading the way, at least – neither he nor Shego seemed to have any idea where they were going.

Cyrus Bortel's design plan for his updated laboratory seemed to going for a creepy animal warren effect, burrowing deep into the mountain with a number of different levels. They had passed several grilles on their way down, peeking out of the ventilation ducts into various rooms, but they hadn't seen much of anything going on, although Ron had caught the sound of Team Go beginning their diversionary fight on the ground floor before they went deep enough into the lair complex that the sound grew more muted.

"Left," said Kimberly Anne, up ahead in the dark shaft.

Ron brushed spiderwebs aside, holding onto the penlight Shego had given him and taking up the rear as she and Kimberly Anne took the lead. Shego's butt was basically right in his face. Ron tried not to look, but he couldn't help noticing it _was_ kind of a nice butt. He had just succumbed to flat out staring when Shego stopped abruptly. Ron did not notice quickly enough, jabbing into her rear end with the penlight held in his mouth before he could stop.

"Ow!" yelled Shego. "Watch it!"

"My bad!"

"Kimberly Anne, why'd you stop?"

The synthodrone turned back Ron and Shego. Beyond her, Ron could see a ladder leading down from their shaft to another level - but she looked to the side instead, down a horizontal fork in the shaft to her right, as if considering something. "The prison cells are down two more levels", she said. "But if I can get to the synthodrone production center, I think I could interfere with his system. I could disable his ability to make synthodrones. If Global Justice arrives and joins Team Go, that could give us the edge over whatever he's already made. I might be able to destroy the synthodrones themselves, too, but I need access to his system through the central hub in his production center."

Shego looked back at Ron, who nodded.

"Sounds good to me."

"You two go down two levels and release Kim Possible and Dr. Director," said Kimberly Anne. "I'll go this way."

"Uh, wait up," said Shego. "How do we find the prison?"

"It's down two levels, then go in the opposite direction of the ladder, then the second left, and the first right, and the third left."

"Just like a computer game," joked Ron.

Shego paused for a moment, whispering silently as she repeated the commands in order to memorize them. Ron saw Kimberly Anne slip away down the tunnel to their right. Shego made a move as if to stop her, but the synthodrone was fast – she was already farther down the shaft. The two of them made their way to the ladder.

"Something wrong?" asked Ron.

"You sure we can trust her?"

"Why not?"

"I don't know, I just think – I mean, she tried to kill Kim earlier. It's hard to ignore that."

"Yeah, but she's learning. I think she's changed her priorities now. And anyway, she could have killed me when she had the chance, and she didn't."

Shego did not respond – instead, the two of the them climbed down the ladder to the next level.

"So, what's up with you and Team Go, anyway? Are you _seriously_ like a good guy now?"

"Trying to be."

Ron tried to get a better look at Shego, but considering all he could see was her butt and the eerie shadows that played across the walls of the ventilation shaft, twisted and warped by the light from their penlights, it was hard to make her out. Still, she didn't seem any different since she had arrived at Kim's house to pick him up. Miss Go had looked completely different – the fresh-faced smile, the erect posture – but this Shego was the same Shego he had always known. It was possible she was just working with Team Go to help rescue Kim, after which she'd go back to her old ways. Ron had a hard time wrapping his head around the idea that their old arch enemy could really turn good.

"So, what, you think if you turn into a good guy, you'll get Kim back?"

"Something like that."

Ron was unable to resist a jab. "I dunno how you think you're going to be a good guy when you have no problem stealing someone's girlfriend from them. It's like you don't care about anybody else's feelings."

Shego laughed. "You're saying I should care about your feelings? I don't even know you, Stoppable. And at least I'm being honest with you. It's not like I was trying to hurt you when I kept making passes at Kim, it's just that I knew what I wanted. I can't change that. And Kim was the one who got involved. It takes two to tango. Besides, I doubt you have to worry. Kim left me, she's back with you, and nothing I do matters at this point, probably. I just have to try."

"Who said Kim was back with me?"

Shego looked back with a questioning look. "I dunno, I assumed. She left me for you, didn't she?"

"She left _you_, yeah. But she's not interested in me, either."

"Oh."

Shego seemed to ponder the new information as they made their way farther into the shaft.

"So how's the good guy thing going, anyway?" asked Ron.

"Not too good. I can't stand my brothers."

"What's that have to do with anything?"

"What do you mean? I'm trying to rejoin Team Go."

"Yeah, but it's not like that's the only way to be a good guy. You could always just be a freelancer. Like the lone ranger, or the Fearless Ferret, when his sidekick Wonder Weasel had to go to the hospital after getting run over by his mother-in-law."

"I missed that episode," said Shego.

Ron was surprised that she _even_ watched the Fearless Ferret. Unless she was being sarcastic – but it didn't seem like it. The woman seemed lost in thought – maybe, for whatever reason, it hadn't occurred to her that rejoining Team Go wasn't the only way she could reform and renounce her evil ways. Her past life as a superhero had been so closely tied with her brothers, it must have been hard to imagine a third option. Ron didn't know why he was giving _her_ advice, though. The thought of her with Kim still made his teeth grate. And yet, she _did_ seem to be trying to change. Having Shego as an ally would be better than having her as an enemy.

"So why do you like Kim, anyway?"

For a moment, Ron thought she was going to ignore the question. Maybe she was absorbed in following Kimberly Anne's directions to the prison complex. But then, the heavy silence in the shaft was broken.

"She's like me," said Shego. "But better."

It was a strange explanation. Kind of depressing, when Ron thought about it, although he didn't get the impression that Shego was such a self-hating person. Before he could push her for a more detailed answer, though, Shego stopped abruptly. The gloom was pierced by some shafts of light filtering through a nearby grille; Ron thought they had arrived at the prison cells for a moment, but as he looked through the grille, he could only see a small storage room of some kind.

"What's the holdup?" he said.

She held a finger to her mouth.

"It's below us," she whispered.

Ron noticed another grille set into the floor of the shaft, just ahead of Shego. She gave a grunt of irritation as Ron crawled forward and squeezed in beside her, looking down into the room below them. He could see the edge of one prison cell, blocked off by a set of what looked like neon energy bars; below them seemed to be some kind of antechamber connecting several cells. It was a little hard to see everything from their position in the ventilation shaft, but as far as Ron could tell, there were no guards. They had probably all been called up for the ongoing assault on the ground floor.

"What now?" he asked.

Shego was about to kick open the grille, but she paused and stared at Ron for a moment, thinking.

"You need to stay up here."

"Why?"

"Just in case something happens. That, and you can help us get back up here from the floor. Don't say anything or let anybody know you're up here until we're ready to escape, alright?"

"Alright," whispered Ron. "Good luck."

XX

The sounds of battle came echoing from the lair's entrance, where Team Go and Global Justice were both pushing their way inexorably into the lair. It seemed close; too close for Cyrus Bortel's comfort. Everything was going according to plan, and his synthodrones were putting up enough resistance to draw the two groups farther into the lair while giving them the impression they had the upper hand, and yet Bortel knew he was cutting it close. All he needed was for one last synthodrone to finish its development, and then the next phase of the plan could begin.

Bortel hated to admit it, but his first attempt at world domination had come close to total failure. His attack on mayor Bill Vito's mansion had been poorly timed, to say the least; not only that, but he knew he had been too impatient to get started. Creating synthodrones that perfectly mimicked their human counterparts was a tricky business – the synthodrone Kim Possible was not quite like the real thing, after all, and if Bortel had to guess, replacing Jack Hench so early in his synthodrone experiments was probably not a good idea either. Fortunately, he had gotten an unexpected escape route from someone he least expected: Doctor Drakken. Although the man had asked for one thing in return.

And now, finally, that thing was about to be born.

"She's pretty," said the synthetic Ron Stoppable, who stood beside him along with a few other nondescript, bulky synthodrone henchmen. "She's twitching a lot now – does that mean she's finished?"

"Yes," said Bortel. "Stand back."

He pressed a button on the Gestation Vat. The glass front slid open, letting its fluid contents spill out messily on the floor, along with its synthetic newborn, who flopped awkwardly on the ground, green skin shining and slick. Bortel did not have time for silly preoccupations like sex and attraction – he was usually a solitary man, and his mind was consumed by his work – but he had to admit, seeing a particularly beautiful synthodrone, naked and glistening, was hard not to notice. Although he supposed that being born from a vat took away some of the sexiness.

He waited until the synthodrone began to breathe on its own. It opened its eyes and began to move its limbs.

"Welcome to the world," he said.

The synthodrone got up slowly.

"What – where am I?"

"In my lair, of course."

It looked _exactly_ like Shego.

Bortel was always proud when his creations came out successfully. He had gotten enough to go on from security tapes showing Shego during her previous visits to his laboratory, as well as information Drakken had given him – while he had been busy trying to orchestrate his world domination plan and make sure Kim Possible and that sidekick didn't catch him with his pants down, he had just enough time to fulfill Drakken's request.

His synthodrone creation process had been streamlined and sped up over the last week or two in particular, and Drakken hadn't asked for much in the way of an identical personality, which simplified the process. All he wanted was someone who would serve him faithfully, without any questions or snark. Bortel got the feeling it was vindictiveness and revenge motivating Doctor Drakken's request, but he didn't judge his customers. Or his future partners in evil, for that matter.

"What now?" asked the syntho-Ron.

"Now, we take our captives and move out before our uninvited guests push too far into the lair."

Bortel had felt a surge of confidence as soon as the synthetic Shego was born, but now that it was standing and ready to leave, he felt a pang of worry, equally strong. His security camera system had been disabled – by Kim Possible's little technical helper boy, he assumed – but he still got enough information from his synthodrones fending off the assault. Team Go and Global Justice were staging a frontal attack on his lair, but no one had seen any sign of Shego herself. Or Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, for that matter. He had eyes on his captives down in the prison complex, but now seemed like the time for a bad surprise. He'd feel more secure if he knew of the whereabouts of his two teen foes.

As if in answer to his thoughts, an alarm sounded above his head. The twin fluorescent strips over their heads, providing the only dim light for the synthodrone production center, began to flash with periodic bursts of red. A monotone female voice began to speak:

_Intruders in the prison complex._

Bortel smiled. Kim's tech helper had been breaking into his system with surprising speed, disabling security cameras and other warning systems, but he couldn't disable the mole Bortel had in the prison complex. It sounded like he had just gotten an answer as to where Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable were – how thoughtful of them to join his captives in the prison complex. He didn't even have to do any work! He motioned for his synthodrone subjects to follow him when he turned and ran smack into Kim Possible.

"Kim Possible! What – how did you-"

"It's me!"

Bortel took a closer look. Judging by the vapid expression, he was mistaken – it was his synthodrone copy of Kim Possible, not the real thing. He ground his teeth; at this point, being surprised by the fake Kim and mistaking it for the real thing was just getting excessive. He _really_ needed to attach some kind of tag to the fake ones, so he could tell them apart more quickly. Apparently, the syntho-Kim had come into the room without anyone even noticing. He looked over her suspiciously.

"What happened with kidnapping Ron Stoppable?" he asked. "I lost contact with you."

"There were some problems, but I still managed to bring him here. And I brought some other captives, too! They're all in the prison complex right now."

"Yes, I am aware of that. Very well, come with me."

Bortel was about to head for the elevator that went down to the level containing the prisons, but he stopped again and looked back at the synthodrone Kim Possible.

"How do I know I can trust you?" he asked.

"You can still bring Shego back to me, can't you?"

Bortel frowned. He had been stringing the syntho-Kim along, making promises he couldn't keep, but the syntho-Kim _did_ have a mind of its own. He wondered if it could figure out he was lying to it. He had been a little nervous after he had sent it to kidnap Ron Stoppable, since he had expected it to return much more quickly than it did. But it was here now. Maybe it would be better to tell the truth.

"What if I can't?" he asked.

The syntho-Kim looked at the newly born syntho-Shego, who was still naked and covered with a sheen of fluid from the Gestation Vat. His synthodrone henchmen were too stupid to fetch it a towel and a set of clothes, apparently. He caught a look of desire in the syntho-Kim's face, obvious and unrestrained – she wasn't very good at subtlety. She turned to him, pointing at the synthodrone. "You have the Memory Recovery Machine," it said. "Have you updated it to extract memories yet?"

Bortel nodded.

"And does it work?"

"Oh, yes. I have already tested it."

"Then you can use it on Shego, and then use it to make this synthodrone _just_ like her?"

Bortel nodded, his lips curling into a smile.

"Then I'll work for you, as long as you keep your promise."

The syntho-Kim didn't know that the syntho-Shego was meant for Drakken yet, but Bortel didn't have to tell her that. Besides, he wouldn't be working with Drakken forever – the man might prove useful, but only one supervillain could rule the world at a time. That was just how it worked. Once he had gotten Drakken out of the way, the syntho-Shego could easily be modified to love the syntho-Kim. Or he could just make a copy. Heck – if she really wanted, he could just slap some kind of brainwashing device on the _real_ Shego, once he got around to inventing it. Maybe Kimberly Anne couldn't get real love, but if all it wanted was Shego in one form or another, that was promise he could keep.

XX

Hours had slipped by with no sign of rescue, but for the first time since she had been dumped in her prison cell with Dr. Director and Jack Hench, Kim saw a ray of light. The henchmen who had been guarding the common area which connected the cells had slipped away about fifteen minutes ago. Not only that, but shortly after the guards had disappeared, she had heard footsteps running by just outside the main door beyond the energy bars keeping her in the cell. Other than herself, her cell mates, and Bortel, everyone in the complex were synthodrones who didn't need bathroom breaks or sleep, so all the commotion outside _had_ to mean something was going on.

"So what was up with those guards?" asked Hench.

"Just what I was thinking."

"I told you Global Justice would arrive soon," said Dr. Director.

The three of them were startled by a loud clang coming from outside the cell they were sharing. Kim peered past the energy bars, which were bright enough to be blinding if a person stared directly at them for too long – but just beyond, in the antechamber, it was fairly gloomy. It only took a moment, however, to see that a grating had fallen from the ceiling. Kim got as close as she could to the bars and looked up; beyond them was a square hole in the ceiling. She jumped, then smiled, as a familiar figure in green and black suddenly dropped out of the hole.

"Shego!" she said.

"Hey, Princess."

Kim and her fellow captives waited patiently as Shego came up to the wall beside the prison cell and began to look at something which Kim assumed was a control panel. It looked like she was having trouble figuring out what to do. After a moment of fumbling and grumbling, Shego stood back and lobbed a ball of green plasma at the panel, sending a shower of sparks and a twisted square of metal flying to the ground. Kim grinned as the energy bars flickered briefly before shutting down. She stepped out of the cell.

"A little plasma always does the trick," said Shego.

"Actually, that was Wade."

Kim heard the familiar voice coming from behind Shego, up in the open ventilation shaft in the ceiling. "Ron?" she said. "Is that you up there?"

"Hey, KP, what's up?"

Ron's head poked out of the shaft, and Kim couldn't help laughing at the sight.

"What's going on? You _both_ came to rescue me?"

"Yeah," said Ron. "We decided two heads were better than one."

"A lot of heads, actually," added Shego. "Team Go is up there on the ground floor providing a diversion, and Wade said Global Justice just got here, too. Hopefully Bortel and his synthodrones are distracted enough to let us get out of here without any snags. Or maybe we should try to hit Bortel and his henchmen from two angles."

It was an idea, but Kim was confused at Shego's mention of her brothers. "Team Go is here? Really?"

"Yeah. I rejoined them."

The news took Kim by surprise – from the way Shego had acted around her brothers on the few occasions she had seen them together, Kim never would have expected such a turn of events. Why would Shego rejoin her old sibling superhero team? Almost as soon as she asked herself the question, Kim began to suspect she knew the answer. Here she was, after all, saving the day. Both of them. Her ex-boyfriend, and her ex-girlfriend, sort of. Kind of a strange rescue team, now that she thought about it.

"We even have Kimberly Anne on our side," said Ron from up in the shaft. "She's off trying to shut down Bortel's synthodrone production center."

Kim frowned. Her killer clone was here? _Not_ as exciting as Ron and Shego coming to the rescue.

"Hey," said Ron, noticing her look, "I know she tried to choke you and all, but it's no big. She-"

Ron was interrupted by a strange crackling sound coming from somewhere up above them. The group looked around in confusion, but Kim quickly realized what she had heard; it was the sound of feedback on an intercom system. She noticed a couple speakers tucked away in a corner of the ceiling. Not only that, but she noticed a wide glass window along the wall of the prison complex's antechamber, which was at an angle that had obscured it from view while she was locked in the cell. It was dark in the prison, and whatever was beyond the glass was darker. But as she watched, a light flickered on, revealing some kind of observation room.

There beyond the window, microphone in hand, was Cyrus Bortel. Kim's synthodrone clone stood beside him.

"Welcome to my lair!" Bortel's voice crackled over the speaker system.

_That didn't take long_, Kim thought. Bortel must have been tipped off, somehow. To her right, the door to the prison complex slid open as several bulky synthodrones marched into the room. Before Kim or anyone else in the group could make a dash for the open door, it closed again. The synthodrones spread out, staring menacingly at Kim, her fellow captives, and her would-be rescuers.

"I _knew_ it," said Shego. "I knew we couldn't trust you!"

She flung a ball of plasma towards the glass, hitting right where Kimberly Anne was staring through, but after a flash of green, it seemed to have no effect. Kimberly Anne's face seemed to falter for just a moment, her smile wavering. Kim was surprised they had taken her synthodrone clone along. She could have told them they couldn't trust it; but then again, she knew Ron had a soft spot for it. But sometimes Ron was too forgiving.

"Actually," laughed Bortel, "while it was Kimberly Anne that brought you here, that was not how I was alerted to your arrival in the prison complex. I have a mole in your midst. Would you like to guess who? Okay, no, I do have the patience to wait for you to guess – it is Dr. Director!"

The group turned to look at Dr. Director. Kim hadn't noticed, preoccupied by Cyrus Bortel's sudden appearance, but the woman had moved gradually away from the group and joined the synthodrones who had marched into the room. She flashed a malicious grin at them as Bortel laughed, the sound piercing through the speaker system. "That is correct," he said. "It is not the real Dr. Director, Kim Possible – you and Jack Hench have been in that cell with a synthodrone the entire time!"

Hench shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder why I chose this line of work."

"Money," said Shego.

"Oh, yes. Now I remember."

Kim noticed Ron's head poking out from the shaft; it looked like he was about to drop down with them, but she got the feeling they were in big trouble. She shook her head at him, indicating he should stay up, but trying not to draw attention to him. Ron hesitated for a moment before disappearing into the black mouth of the ventilation shaft. Just in case they couldn't overpower their captors, Kim thought it was best that someone could escape upstairs and let Team Go and Global Justice know what was going on.

"I wanted a pair of eyes on you at all times, Kim Possible," said Bortel, clearly gloating over his ruse. "But that was not all. The Dr. Director synthodrone was a test of sorts. I have the real Dr. Director locked away elsewhere in the facility, but I wanted to put her copy in a cell with you and Jack Hench to see if you would notice the difference. Clearly, you did not."

Kim had to admit he was right – she had definitely been fooled.

"What were you testing?" she asked. "Some kind of new synthodrone?"

"That is correct. Drakken's technology was effective in creating a general personality for my synthodrones, but it is much more difficult to mirror the personality of a real person. I needed a way to improve the personalities of my synthodrone surrogates, and what better way to do that then to fill them with the actual memories of the human beings they are replacing? What is a human being, after all, other than the collection of their life experiences? I stole Dr. Langford's Memory Recovery Machine, reverse engineered it, and modified it so that it can suck the memories from a person's brain, after which I can upload them into a synthodrone. Dr. Director was my first test subject."

Kim glanced over at Dr. Director – the fake one, anyway. She was still standing with the other synthodrones, all of them spread out, but still blocking the general direction of the door. Even if she could get to the door, it was probably locked. Their best bet was to defeat the synthodrones and then, hopefully, they could escape through the air vent in the ceiling, where Ron was still waiting. But she got the feeling it wouldn't be that easy.

"Not only does uploading the human model's memories alter the behavior of the synthodrone," continued Bortel, "but they can then answer any question posed by friends, relatives, or colleagues. They share the same memories, the same knowledge, as the human they are meant to replace. Even if anyone _did_ suspect something was off, there is no way to ask any personal questions and find out if the synthodrone is an imposter."

"So, what," said Shego, "you're just going to replace everyone who any power you want to get your hands on, and control things from behind the scenes with your syntho-puppets?"

"Exactly! I replaced Jack Hench to gain control of Hench Co, I have created a copy of Dr. Director to assume control of Global Justice's Middleton branch, and I attempted to replace Bill Vito to gain control of Team Go, as well as gain his position on the Global Justice Board of Secret Shareholders, which you so kindly let me know about, Hench. Unfortunately, that did not go as well as I planned, but it is no matter. I will just replace him later – and now, I know the MRM can be used to make a perfect synthodrone copy."

"Wait," said Kim, almost overlooking a phrase she hadn't recognize. "What did you say? Board of Secret Shareholders?"

"I see you are not aware of Global Justice's hierarchy of command, Kim Possible. Dr. Director is not in charge of the entire organization. She is not the one pulling the strings. Jack Hench and Bill Vito are both members of the board."

Kim looked at Hench, who shrugged and smiled awkwardly.

"There are others, as well. When I used the MRM to suck out Dr. Director's memories, I thought I would find out who they were - but even _she_ does not know, apparently. They are very secretive as to their identities. I _did_ find some other fascinating information, though. You would not believe what they did to you as a child."

"What?"

Bortel laughed at Kim's reaction, but before he could answer, another synthodrone entered the room in which he and Kimberly Anne were standing. It whispered into his ear, and his face grew darker as he listened. "I am afraid I have been going on too long about my evil plans," he told his captives. "Team Go and Global Justice are making progress into the lair, and I must move to the next phase of my plan."

"How do you even expect to replace anyone with your synthodrones?" said Shego. "The press found out about you trying to replace Bill Vito – it's all over the news! There's no way you can get away now!"

"No one will be looking for me if they think I am dead!" laughed Bortel. "As far as the rest of the world is concerned, I will not be leaving this lair alive. And neither will Global Justice, or any of your brothers, Shego. Now, I cannot talk any longer – we must leave."

Bortel looked down at a control panel on the other side of the glass window and pressed a button. Kim noticed the fake Dr. Director and the synthodrone henchmen moving forward; she tensed, ready to attack, but instead of charging, they seemed to draw closer to the ventilation shaft in the ceiling, blocking their escape route. Kim was about to lunge forward and kick the nearest one when she smelled something strange. A little bit pungent. Besides the smell, there was also a faint hiss in the air – for a moment, she thought it was just the speaker system, but then she realized-

"Gas," said Shego. "He's letting some kind of gas into the room."

She looked up at the air vent.

"Ron, run for it!"

For a moment, Kim wondered if it was the wrong thing to do – without Ron reaching his arms down to grab them and help pull them up into the shaft, it would be harder to escape. But she realized Shego was right – with four synthodrone opponents in the room and only the two of them able to fight – unless Jack Hench had some serious martial arts skills she didn't know about - they wouldn't be getting away in time.

And Kim could already feel the effects of the gas, too. She went straight for Dr. Director, knocking her back with a hard kick, but when she came in for a punch, the synthodrone blocked it easily and punched back. Beside her, Shego managed to knock one synthodrone over before two others pinned her by the arms. Jack Hench moved to the back of the room, but he barely made it to the wall before stumbling awkwardly from the influence of the gas.

Kim blocked a few blows from Dr. Director, trying to come back with a sweeping kick, but the movement was enough to make her queasy. She was embarrassed to find herself falling forward. Not even bothering to attack her, the synthodrone Dr. Director caught her in its arms instead.

"Ugh," said Kim. "Drugged again. This totally sucks."

"Creator," said Dr. Director. "There was another one up in the air vents!"

Bortel held up the microphone beyond the glass. "Just leave him, it does not matter. He is just a sidekick – he can die here like the others, and we do not have time. We must go, now!"

Kim felt her senses fading as the syntho-Director and another henchman dragged her out of the complex. So much for being rescued, she thought. At least Shego and Ron had given it a shot, though. Where they were going, she did not know, but she hoped Ron could meet up with Team Go and Global Justice and figure something out. Otherwise, things were just going from bad to worse.

XX

Expanding on the laboratory had been easy with the kind of manpower and money Cyrus Bortel had at his disposal. A larger synthodrone production center, more lab rooms with cutting-edge equipment, a command center – as was required in any supervillain lair worth its salt, from what Bortel had read. The escape tunnel through which he, his captives, and a handful of synthodrone henchmen were about to escape was a newer edition. He stared into the tunnel entrance, a little sad that he was leaving behind the place he had long called home, but it was time to move on. On to bigger and better things.

"Where are we going?" asked Kimberly Anne.

"Away," said Bortel. "We are transferring to a new base of operations."

Kimberly Anne carried the real Kim Possible on her back, while the syntho-Shego carried her unconscious human counterpart. A couple more bulky synthodrone henchmen were carrying Jack Hench and the real Dr. Director, whom Bortel had drugged and retrieved from her private cell earlier. Bortel carried his modified Memory Recovery helmet to make sure no one dropped it. It was too valuable to let his regular henchmen manhandle it, and they would be needing it at Drakken's lair. The syntho-Director and syntho-Ron were also part of their little group, but Bortel stopped before they entered the escape tunnel – he wanted to make absolutely sure Team Go and Global Justice would not be making it out of his lair.

"You, syntho-Stoppable, and you, syntho-Betty - I need both of you to stay here in the lair and make sure our guests do not escape. I will be entering the shut down code in a moment. Once the lair is sealed, they should be trapped, but make sure they do not live to find a way out. Once I arrive at Drakken's lair, I will establish a link you can use to upload all the information from my system before this lair is destroyed."

"Yes, sir."

The two of them ran back into the lair as Bortel and his followers stepped into the rocky escape tunnel that led away from his lair. Both the syntho-Betty and the syntho-Ron were expendable – although Drakken did not have Gestation Vats or a synthodrone production center at _his_ lair, they would not take long to build again, and Bortel had spent lots of time tweaking the procedure to his heart's content. All he needed was the information, the formulas and data for rebuilding everything - much of which was in his head, anyway. He had the real Dr. Director with him to make a new copy soon enough, and while leaving the real Ron Stoppable behind in the lair meant he couldn't use the MRM to extract his memories, Bortel didn't really see the point of wasting time on a sidekick when he had the real Kim Possible already.

A few meters into the tunnel, and they reached an open blast door. Once Bortel entered a code into the control panel on the wall, the thick steel blast doors would close, separating the lair from the rest of the escape tunnel, which wound its way through the mountain, higher and higher until it exited about a half mile away from the lair itself.

He had a helicopter concealed on a small helipad, but there wasn't a lot of room in it; not only that, but Global Justice had been kind enough to bring their own transportation. Borrowing their hoverjet would leave them stranded, not that they'd escape from the lair in the first place, and plumbing the depths of Dr. Director's mind had given him knowledge on how to disable the tracking and communications features on the hoverjet, so no other agents coming to the rescue would be tracing his escape route. Bortel smiled; since he'd soon have access to Global Justice itself, he could build a fleet of hoverjets if he wanted to.

But now was not the time to daydream about the future. Escape was his priority.

Bortel and his entourage crossed over the metal strip where the blast door would be closing. He entered the shut down code into the control panel on the wall, and watched with satisfaction as the thick doors closed in from either side of the rocky walls of the escape tunnel and sealed shut with a loud clang. All over the rest of his lair, the main entrance, windows, and any other exit from the lair would also be sealed off with steel blast shields.

He entered another code into the control panel for good measure, which shut down all power to the lair except emergency systems. It would have disabled his lair's self-destruct capabilities under normal circumstances, but unfortunately, he had already noticed Wade Load hacking into his system earlier and screwing that up. Which meant he would have to rely on Drakken's invention over at his new lair to take care of wiping his old lair off the map, taking out his enemies, and removing all traces of himself in the process. From what Drakken had said, it would do the job just fine.

"Follow me," he said.

"I get to visit Drakken?" asked the syntho-Shego. "I'm so excited!"

"You'll be working for him, I assume."

"I hope I can make him happy."

"Oh, I am sure you can."

Although he took the lead as they went up the ascending tunnel, Bortel looked back, amused by the sight of the syntho-Shego and syntho-Kim carrying their counterparts in flesh and blood. Synthodrones made to replace real people. Something Drakken had never considered, even if Eric had been human-like in his personality and appearance, according to what Shego had told him during her first visit to make herself a sex-bot.

His henchmen could be altered in other ways, as well. When Bortel had been expanding his operation, he had raised several customized synthodrones with shovels for hands so that they could dig more easily and save him the hassle of hiring construction crews. It was an abomination against nature, and just the sight of those shovel-hands had made him uncomfortable, but taking over the world was a messy business. He was just starting to really hone his imagination. The more he tweaked the formula for his synthodrones, the more power he had. Shape, size, abilities – all of them were under his control.

The tunnel sloped upwards more steeply, eventually shifting from a smooth floor into rock-carved steps. Before long, they reached a doorway. "Here we are," he said to his henchmen.

Bortel opened the door and walked out into the early morning gloom. A helicopter sat waiting on its helipad. They were in a depression near the top of a crag about a half mile away from the mountaintop which housed his lair. Rocky slopes surrounded the little helipad, masking it from view. Bortel clambered up to the top of one of the slopes and looked across the mountainous landscape, morning light just beginning to flood across jagged rock, filling its cracks with hues of orange and yellow. He saw the GJ hoverjet, parked around the entrance to his lair. It wouldn't take long to get there; but first he wanted to make sure he had a place to go. He got into the helicopter for a moment and dialed Drakken's number into a pad on the helicopter's controls, donning a headset.

"Hello?" said Drakken.

"I am about to leave. I hope you are ready."

"Yes – you have the synthodrone Shego with you?"

"I do."

"And the real Shego, as well?"

Bortel wondered why Drakken had wanted the real one to come along. Maybe he was going to gloat and show her how she had been replaced for her insubordination. Or maybe he just didn't want to actually hurt her. The two had been partners for a long time, after all. "Yes, I do," he said. "A little loopy from some knockout gas, but she is fine."

"Good. Then I'll be waiting."

Bortel hung up and got back out of the helicopter, motioning for one of his synthodrones to approach it. "Set the explosives," he said. "Blow it up."

The synthodrone set up the explosives. It had also been upgraded with enough knowledge to fly the Global Justice hoverjet. Having access to Dr. Director's mind had a lot of benefits. He climbed over the rocky edge of the little crater in which the helipad was hidden and looked at his lair again, one last time. His mountain, wreathed in morning mist, its tip lightly touched in gold streaming out from the ascending orb of the morning sun. Bortel was surprised to feel sentimental. It was time to say goodbye.

Already, he could see the possibilities in his future. In a way, it was like being reborn. Sloughing off his old life as a scientist, landing wet and naked like one of his newborn synthodrones, ready to grow into a new life of supervillainy. No one could stop him now.


	22. Me on the Other Side

**Me on the Other Side**

XX

They were just about to turn a corner, cutting off their view of the lair's main door. Team Go was leading the way – Hego, in particular, seemed to be taking an enthusiastic pleasure out of beating up synthodrones left and right. Will Du's team of agents also seemed upbeat about the way things were going, firing casual phase rifle blasts at the sporadic synthodrone attacks, but Will was sure of it now – this wasn't right. There was no way they were driving the synthodrones off this easily. It was a ruse.

"Everyone," he said. "We need to fall back to the entrance and try to open the door. It's obvious that Cyrus Bortel is leading us in farther into the lair in order to trap us."

"Be a man!" shouted Hego from the front of the group, leading the way deeper into Bortel's lair. "What was your name again?"

"Agent Du."

"We've got them on the run! Onwards, Agent Du! Everyone, follow me!"

"My agents are not under your command, Hego."

"Going back to the door is a bad idea, anyway. We should press on until we join forces with Shego and rescue your boss and Kim Possible! Then we can decide on our next move."

Will hesitated. Hego had a point – going back to the door would be losing ground again, and if there was no opening it, that could easily end up trapping them in a narrow space once the synthodrones closed in again. Maybe their best bet was to reach the others, regroup, and find an alternate way out of the lair – or Bortel himself, at which point they could force him to cease his illegal activities. Will hated to admit it, but he felt nervous. Indecisive. He had been on missions before, he had fought supervillains, but this was his first time in charge of such a large team without Dr. Director's supervision. Maybe it would be best to find her and use her expertise.

Just before they left the long vaulted hallway that made up the lair's entryway, a loud metallic whine came from behind them. Will looked back at the entrance, along with Team Go and his agents – the choice had been made for him. The door had just sealed itself shut, and Will didn't need to be a rocket scientist to know that it was probably locked. Above him, the lights suddenly flickered for a moment before going out entirely, dropping a blanket of darkness over everyone – and everything – in the room.

Will was about to switch on a flashlight attached to his phase rifle, but fortunately, a dimmer set of blue backup lights switched on, coming from a few points along the ceiling. It was still dark, but an eerie blue haze filtered through the chamber; enough to see where they were going. Not only had Cyrus Bortel trapped them inside, but he had shut off the power. Most of it, at least. Probably just to make things harder for them.

"Alright, agents," he said. "Follow Team Go's lead. We must locate the prison cells and rendezvous with everyone else."

A synthodrone leaped at him almost before he finished his sentence, knocking the phase rifle from his hands, but Will Du countered its attacks with a series of feints until he could get in a good karate chop to the neck. The synthodrone hit the floor with a gurgle. Agent Ullman joined him, but the synthodrone was already up, retreating down a side passage. Will managed to grab his rifle from the floor and fire off a parting shot, which hit the synthodrone square in the back, but it was only enough to slow it down. Normally, a phase rifle blast was enough to knock someone to the ground and leave them incapacitated for a little while.

"Those things are tough," said Ullman. "You okay?"

"Yes, Agent Ullman. Let's move."

The group pressed onwards. Within moments, Will noticed the synthodrones were retreating, disengaging from their fights and flitting off down side passages or into nearby rooms. While the place might have once been a laboratory, Will Du definitely thought it fit the bill for a lair now. Supervillains all had their decorative styles, and Bortel's choice of appearance was creepier than what he usually saw. The place branched off in different directions, as if it had been built by a pack of animals burrowing into the mountain to make their den.

The blue emergency lights were dim. They were barely enough light to make out the details of a room. Hego, still in the lead, occasionally flared up his strange meteor powers, providing some illumination when the lights got particularly bad. He burst through a closed door and stepped into a new room with the rest of his team. Will followed with his agents.

The room was larger than most, like some kind of planning area. A single light hung over a large table in the middle of the room, but the rest of it was bathed in darkness. He saw what looked like a window on the far wall, but it had some kind of metal shutters covering it. Will got the feeling that the shutters had descended over the window to block escape at about the same time the main door had closed.

Out of the corner of his eye, Will noticed a dark figure watching them. It darted through a door before he could take aim, leaving them alone in the room.Hego seemed to notice it too. He pointed in the direction of the door.

"That way," he said.

Mego held up a hand to slow his brother.

"Call Wade, already. Make sure we're still going in the right direction."

"My Go Bracelet is malfunctioning. We seem to be getting some interference in here."

"Wade does not have updated schematics," said Will. "And this lair is far more elaborate than the last time I visited."

Hego gave up fiddling with his communications device. He and his brothers stepped towards the door which they had seen the synthodrone slip through. Will joined them, motioning for Team Go to stand aside as he edged it open with a foot, phase rifle at the ready. Ullman and a couple other agents backed him up as he took a step through, although Hego tried to squeeze in at the same time, causing both of them to get stuck for a moment. More of his agents kept tabs on the group's rear, making sure they didn't get ambushed.

Past the door, there was a long, dark passageway. It was even darker than the rest of the lair. This part of the lair was much closer to the way he remembered it – although it still seemed bigger. A faint light came from two narrow fluorescent lines on the ceiling, tracing their way from the door farther into the hall. Another source of light, however, was the tubes. Will noticed them as soon as he entered. Rows of glass tubes, lined up on either side of the hallway, imbued with a sickly green light.

Somehow, Will was reminded of aquariums. If aquariums were radioactive. But these aquariums had no fish. No pets of any kind. No water, either - the tubes were all empty, although Will noticed that many of them seemed to be opened up, the glass retracted like gaping mouths. He looked down at the floor; it was a metal grating, but he could see light glistening on its surface, as if some liquid had recently been spilled all over it. Inside of the tubes, their glass walls were speckled with droplets of liquid.

"What is this place?" the Wegos asked.

"Some kinda sciencey thing," said Ullman, taking a flanking position to Will's left, although there wasn't much room to maneuver in the narrow hallway. "Looks like something was supposed to be in these tubes."

"They're gestation chambers," said Will. "For growing synthodrones."

The group made their way carefully down the hallway, looking at each glass chamber as they went, although none of them had anything in them. The rows of glass tubes were eerie, even though Will had seen them before. Even outside of Bortel's lair, he had seen things like them - in more classified parts of the Global Justice facility, for instance – a couple were even in the science labs where Dr. Haytham worked. There were parts of Global Justice that rubbed Will the wrong way, but it was his duty to obey orders.

But these were much more high tech. State of the art, although Will was no expert. And there were so _many_ of them. Even if he hadn't visited Bortel's lair before, ordered by Dr. Director to give Wade the false idea that Global Justice had put a halt to Bortel's mail order synthodrone operation, Will still would have known what this place was for. It was obvious. Cyrus Bortel's supervillain specialty seemed to be synthodrones, even if he had stolen the idea from Drakken, and this was a kind of incubation room. By the look of it, he had the capability of hatching a lot of them if he wanted. Will wondered if Dr. Director regretted working so closely with Bortel, overlooking the warning signs.

They reached the end of the hallway, but instead of transitioning into another part of the lab, it connected to a circular nexus room, in the center of which was a bulky column running from floor to ceiling and surrounded by readout screens and flashing lights. Will peered more closely at one of the monitors on the column – it appeared to be some kind of status update on the gestation chambers.

_Incubation process incomplete_, read one message.

Below it, another:

_Override incubation process?_

Below that, someone had typed in the letter 'Y'.

He looked around at the circular hub in which he, Team Go, and his agents had gathered. He looked at the empty glass chambers back in the hall they had just exited. Surrounding them, like spokes in a wheel, several more halls branched away from the hub, all of them containing more chambers. As far as Will could tell, they were all empty. He had no idea which way to go now, and although Hego hadn't said anything, Will got the feeling they were lost.

Just as he was about to consider picking a hallway at random, he saw another dark figure emerge from the shadows of the hall nearest to him. Another synthodrone, probably. Maybe it was the same figure he had seen briefly in the other room, before it darted away. Will trained his weapon on the figure, but he recognized her almost immediately.

"Doctor Director!" said Agent Ullman. "You got away-"

Will shot out a hand and held Agent Ullman back before he could approach the dim figure. It didn't seem likely that Dr. Director would be here without Ron, Shego, or Kim Possible by her side. His best guess was that she _wasn't_ here. She looked just like the real one, but after they gotten locked into the lair, it was just too suspicious.

"Will," it said. "It's about time you arrived."

Will looked over his supposed boss as his fellow agents stood tensely by.

"If you're really Betty, how did you lose your eye?"

He thought that was a good test – not something a synthodrone would know. He had heard his fellow agents talk about it from time to time, assuming it was lost in some kind of Global Justice mission gone wrong, but Will knew the real answer was much more mundane. Dr. Director smiled before responding.

"My brother and I were having a fork-throwing contest, and he missed."

Will nodded. Maybe his suspicions were off, and it was the real Dr. Director. If she was free, Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable couldn't be far behind, and just in time, as he had been getting increasingly nervous about their situation.

"Good thing you're back," said Agent Ullman as he approached. "We have to get-"

Dr. Director took a broad step forward and shot out her hand, straight towards Agent Ullman. Will only had a view of the agent's back, but he heard a strange squelching sound as Ullman froze in his tracks. Dr. Director pulled her hand back, a malicious smile hovering on her face through the dim light. Will could see blood on Dr. Director's fingers. Ullman looked down at his chest, then up at his fellow agents.

"Well, that sucks."

And with that, Ullman fell to the ground, dead.

Will and his fellow agents drew back in alarm. Dr. Director laughed, her voice sharp and cruel.

"I didn't feel like keeping up the ruse," she said. "We're going to have to kill you all now."

The agents and Team Go drew closer together as a faint rustling sound echoed through the central hub, coming from the hallways connecting to it. As they peered into the halls lined with the gestation vats, they could see dark figures moving forward. When the figures were close to the walls, sometimes glow of the tubes lit up their features momentarily, but sometimes they just looked like shadows. There were dozens of them.

Many looked human, but even in the darkness, Will could tell that some of them did not look right. Odd appendages, sharp and club-like, half-formed limbs. Faces twisted into a grotesque mockery of humanity. Some were smaller than a normal human. A few were taller. He saw one, obese and lumbering, like a ball of flesh. Another towered over the others, but its arms and legs were spindly, like those of a spider. Some looked like special experiments Bortel had been running, while some looked half-formed, incomplete. He began to understand the results of overriding an incubation process when it was incomplete.

Bortel must have wanted his babies born so they could join the fight more quickly.

As his agents began to fire their phase rifles, panicking, Will wondered what to do next. He wanted to retreat. But there was nowhere they could retreat. He was starting to think, even with their numbers and Team Go on their side, a frontal attack had been a _really_ bad idea.

XX

A dull pounding began to fade as the effects of the gas wore off. Blackness resolved itself, washing away like a receding wave as colors and shapes took form. Shego blinked as she regained her senses. At first she thought they were still in Cyrus Bortel's lair, judging by the rock-cut walls; but as she looked around, she realized they were someplace new. Bortel's lair had been darker, more like a maze, and a little more established; now, however, they were in some kind of gigantic cavern.

Parts of the cavern floor were paved with metal, and one area was sectioned off with a number of machines and equipment like some kind of makeshift control center, but other areas were still unaltered. She looked up and saw stalactites hanging from the ceiling. Beyond her, a giant crack ran through the center of the cave, as if it had been cleaved in two by an axe. The rift went through the floor, but was mirrored by another rift in the ceiling. Some kind of giant tube-like contraption rose up from the center of the rift in the floor, disappearing into the one in the ceiling, like a metallic tower standing guard over the two halves of the cave. A railing lined the edge of the rift, and a small walkway connected the tower to the side of the cave floor closest to her.

"Where are we?"

Shego looked to her left. Kim was awake, too. She was restrained by some kind of clamp-like devices on her hands and feet; the ones holding her feet together were levitating from the ground. Shego looked down and noticed for the first time that she was also restrained. She tried to struggle, but it was obvious she wasn't getting out of them, at least not yet. Either the restraints were too strong, or the knockout gas hadn't quite worn off, or both.

"No luck, huh?" asked Kim.

"Nope. I've been locked up with these before, when Drakken was working with Warmonga. Drakken must have borrowed the alien technology for himself. Fancier than handcuffs, I guess, but it seems like these are stronger."

She struggled some more, but it was no use.

"Aren't you glad I came to your rescue?"

Shego meant it as a joke. "Yeah," said Kim, laughing. "Actually, I am."

Several synthodrones stood nearby, standing guard, and Shego noticed Kimberly Anne farther away, looking bored for some reason as she sat at desk near the area of the cavern that looked like a control center, partially obscured by a hefty mainframe. There was no sign of Drakken or Cyrus Bortel. Closer and to her right, Shego saw Dr. Director and Jack Hench restrained with their own set of levitating clamps. They both seemed to be awake, too.

"What's up with her?" asked Hench, nodding in Dr. Director's direction. "She doesn't seem right."

Shego looked closer. Something _did_ seem to be wrong with Dr. Director. She stared vacantly ahead, her mouth slightly agape, like she was permanently surprised by something. Cyrus Bortel had said the one in the prison cells when she arrived to rescue Kim was a fake, a synthodrone. Was this the real Dr. Director? Shego wondered what was wrong with her, but she had an unsettling feeling that she already knew.

"Bortel said he updated the Memory Recovery helmet to extract memories," said Kim. "Maybe that's what it does to you after it's finished."

"That is correct!"

The voice came from a hole in the cavern wall nearby, which seemed to lead into another room. Doctor Drakken stepped out with a triumphant grin on his face. Shego glared at the man; after their long working relationship, how could he turn on her like this? Sure, maybe she left him a little abruptly and gave him a bit of a ribbing on his evil performance lately, but it was nothing worse than what she had said many times in the past.

"Bortel already used his MRM on Dr. Director, to make the syntho-Director that was in the prison with you."

"And where is that synthodrone now?" asked Kim.

"In Bortel's lair, along with the synthodrone copy of your buffoon of a sidekick, making sure Team Go and Global Justice don't escape before we can take care of things. We're at my new lair, which happens to be not too far from Bortel's old laboratory. Good real estate in the Rockies lately, I suppose."

"What are you talking about?" said Shego. "What new lair?"

"Oh, did I not tell you about it, Shego? As soon as you came back to our temporary lair with Kim Possible tagging along to spend the night after that first date you two had, I knew I had to keep an eye on you. You were naïve enough to think you could pull the girl over to our side, but I had my doubts from the beginning."

"Yeah, right. You were just as excited as me when we went on that mission to Dementor. You totally thought she was going to go bad!"

"Not a chance, Shego. I knew it was a lost cause, and so I made sure I had a backup lair without your knowledge. And look who ended up being right in the end!"

Shego barely heard what Drakken was saying; something he had said a moment ago, which had almost passed her by, was now nagging her. "What did you mean by 'take care of things'?" she asked.

From the way Drakken glanced at the tower passing between the floor and ceiling rifts in the middle of the cavern, Shego got the feeling the ominous looking structure had something to do with whatever Drakken needed to take care of. "Before long," he said, "we are going to wipe Bortel's old lab off the map, and your brothers and quite a few Global Justice agents along with it. That tower over there is a conduit for my greatest invention yet – the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducing Super Laser!"

Shego slapped a hand to her face.

"Come _on!_"

"Just listen, Shego! I took the Tunneler for Utilization of Sub-Crustal Heat Induction and Energy-"

"You owe me about a hundred and fifty thousand for that," said Hench.

"Quiet, you. I took your invention, and I dug deep into the earth's crust, using that rift as a starting point. Once I was deep enough, I was able to extract geothermal energy to power my Super Laser. After I stole that Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer from Dementor, I finally sat down and cracked the thing open to figure out how it works, so I don't have to keep stealing it. I incorporated its technology into my tower there, which leads up into the rift in the roof of the cavern and terminates in the Super Laser on top of my mountain.

"I can then fire the laser to my heart's content, and using that old satellite I launched last year to get the Steel Toe vs. Pain King match on pay-per-view for free, I can refract the beam and hit any target I wish, inducing a Pan-Dimensional Vortex that swallows my enemies whole. Or, as a first trial run, Bortel's old lab! I am now unstoppable! Eat your heart out, Shego! I bet you regret leaving me now!"

Drakken let out a maniacal cackle, which echoed through the cavern as he held his tiny fists up in the air and shook them triumphantly. His laugh faded away, replaced by silence, as Kim and Shego stared at him. He crossed his arms and stared, waiting for them to acknowledge his greatness.

"So basically it's just a ray gun that shoots black holes?"

The question had its intended effect; Shego smirked as Drakken's face twitched with irritation.

"That is one way to put it, yes. A _stupid_ way to put it."

Shego shrugged nonchalantly. "Bortel's plan is a lot cooler than yours."

"_Nnngh!_"

Drakken looked like he was trying to find something to say, but after a moment he gave up and went stalking off to the side room from which he had emerged. Shego was about to turn to Kim and start figuring out how to escape when, just a moment later, he returned. And he wasn't alone, either. Shego had been mildly amused at Drakken's attempts at self-aggrandizement – and a little concerned about their situation at the same time – but now, when she saw Drakken's companion, she felt all her emotions converging into one: rage.

"What – what is_ that?_"

"This, Shego, is my new replacement!"

Drakken turned and made a theatrical sweep of his hands beside the syntho-Shego, as if he was displaying a product on a television ad. The synthodrone smiled at Shego and waved, the sight of which made Shego sputter in fury.

"Hello!" it chirped. "I like your boss. Why did you leave him?"

"You made a synthodrone clone of me?" she yelled, ignoring her copy. "What the hell?"

"What was I supposed to do, Shego? You left me in the lurch – you betrayed me to work with your brothers again, all because of a little crush on that red-haired teen floozy!"

"Hey," said Kim. "I'm right here."

"My contract said no clones!"

"A contract which no longer holds since you left, Shego. Besides, aren't you being a bit hypocritical? This is a synthodrone, not a clone – no different than the one you made of Kim Possible. Not so fun when the foot is out of the other shoe, is it?"

Shego didn't bother correcting him, partly because she knew he would only get confused, and partly because she realized he was right. As infuriated as she was by the sight of a mirror image of herself, she had done the same thing. She could see her former synthodrone lover, still sitting over by the control center. Shego couldn't tell if Kimberly Anne was just watching them from a distance, or doing something else – either way, that synthodrone had been the case of all her problems. She never should have gotten Bortel to make it.

And now, karma was coming back to bite her in the ass.

"It doesn't even _sound_ like me," said Shego. "It's too chirpy."

"So was your Kim Possible synthodrone," pointed out Drakken. "And I didn't need to copy your personality. Besides, why would I want to be suffer your constant haranguing and hurtfulness anymore, Shego? This synthodrone will serve me with a friendly smile and no questions asked!"

Shego grimaced at the way Drakken had made his comment sound. She hoped he hadn't made a synthodrone in her image for the kind of uses she imagined. But once again, she found herself in an awkward position. That was exactly what she had made Kimberly Anne for. At least Drakken always struck her as pretty much celibate, but she didn't really want to ask. Clearly, he had made the synthodrone to get back at her for leaving him. She should have seen it coming. The man was always childish and petty when things didn't go his way.

Before Drakken could gloat any further, however, Cyrus Bortel appeared out of the same room, joining Drakken's side as he walked up to his captives. "The MRM is set up and ready to go," he told his supervillain companion. "I may not have my synthodrone production facility, but in the mean time, I can extract everyone's memories for future use, and to render them harmless. You should power up that big laser contraption thing, Doctor Drakken."

"Very well. And it's called the Pan-Dimensional Vortex-Inducing Super Laser."

"Yes, that is nice."

Bortel stepped forward and looked over his captives, pointing a finger at each one of them as if counting something off. "Who should I take first," he mused. "Eeny, meeny, miny..."

"Hench," said Drakken. "Shego and Kim Possible should still have the presence of mind to watch as my Super Laser destroys their last chance of rescue. That is, unless you want to join me, Shego."

Shego glared at her former boss.

"Come on," he pleaded. "This is really what you want? You know you're on the wrong side – think of all the freedom you've given up by leaving the path of evil, Shego! And think of the future! My plan is foolproof, and this time I really _will_ take over the world."

"_We_ will take over the world," corrected Bortel.

"Er, yes. Sure. But the world will be taken over, Shego. You don't want to be on the losing side. Kim Possible has simply clouded your judgment, but there is still time to join me."

"Okay," said Shego. "Let me go, and I'll join you."

Drakken's face lit up for a moment, totally buying it. He even took a step forward before stopping with a frown. Shego couldn't help laughing at the sight. "Nice try, Shego."

"You said you wanted me to join you!"

"Yes, I did, but – well, it isn't so easy as – I mean that-"

Drakken trailed off before narrowing his eyes sharply at Shego, as if she had called him out on something. He turned and stamped wordlessly off to the Super Laser tower in order to power up his doomsday device and get ready to destroy Bortel's abandoned lair, crossing the walkway over the rift as his boots clunked loudly on the metal. Shego could see him through a glass window in the tower, pressing buttons with a surly expression. Doctor D was delusional if he thought she was going to join him after he made a synthodrone clone of her. She began to realize why Kim had been so adamant about her own clone not being around if they began a relationship. It was just too weird for words.

"Well," said Jack Hench as Bortel stepped up to him, "I can tell you right now, Bortel, you're no longer a valued Hench Co customer. Or at least, if you did come by, you'd be paying an extra fee. Or at least there wouldn't be any discounts. Look, the point is, maybe I'd still consider taking your business from time to time, but don't be expecting any VIP status."

Shego was amazed at how much Hench was willing to forgive if it meant keeping customers.

"You forgot that I own Hench Co now," said Bortel. "And once I extract your memory and upload it into the synthodrone copy of you that is running the company at this very moment, that nosy secretary will stop asking questions, and my control will be unchallengeable. You understand – this is just business."

"So Miss Harcourt _did_ notice something was wrong? I knew she wasn't just a pretty face!"

Cyrus Bortel led him along, floating in his restraints, as the two of them went towards the room where the MRM was being kept. "Kim Possible," said Hench, looking over his shoulder. "If you make it out of here without me, tell Miss Harcourt she can have that extra week off she requested for next month. And tell her she's the best secretary I've ever had. Also, tell her that week off is unpaid."

"Don't worry," said Kim. "You're getting out of here."

But Hench had already disappeared into the room with his captor. Shego looked worriedly over the cavern lair, wondering if she could move herself forward by wriggling her body. She didn't know why it would be useful; they had synthodrone henchmen watching them, and she couldn't fight with her limbs restrained. Maybe Jack Hench would be returning soon, slack-jawed and empty-faced, like Dr. Director, who was still floating dumbly beside them.

As she watched Drakken fiddling with something inside the little control area in the laser tower, Shego began to worry. Not for herself, but for the people in Bortel's laboratories; her brothers in particular. She was amazed, really. Joining Team Go had been a nonstop pain in the ass, and she felt like she had been fighting with her brothers ever since she left Drakken's old lair and arrived at Go Tower. And yet, now that they were really in trouble, she knew it was true; she cared about them. It probably wasn't something she was going to go shouting from the rooftops, but she didn't want them to get hurt.

Which was why she was counting on Drakken's plan failing spectacularly. His plans usually did, but there were always flukes like the Li'l Diablos. Sometimes Drakken _did_ come through. Hopefully, today wouldn't be one of those flukes.

XX

The air shafts twisted and turned like a maze, folding in on themselves and making Ron feel like he was going in circles. It was a good thing Shego had told him to stay back; otherwise, everyone would have been captured, rescuers and captives alike. Shego had sensed the trap, somehow. Or at least she had known that they were walking into a sticky situation, and there was no point in both of them dropping down into the prison room if Cyrus Bortel had any tricks up his sleeve.

After Ron had heard Bortel on the intercom and smelled the gas spreading through the room, he had crawled away from the open vent as quickly as possible, hoping to avoid getting a direct hit of the gas, but enough had wafted up into the shaft that Ron had gotten woozy. The gas was bad enough, but fortunately, no one had tried to catch him in the shaft – either that, or he had out-crawled them. On the verge of losing consciousness, he had lost his way in the maze of ventilation. Why Bortel needed this much ventilation, he had no idea. Maybe it was to keep his mad scientist laboratories regulated, or maybe it was just part of his lair's confusing, convoluted mystique.

Ron knew he had to meet up with Team Go and Global Justice, who were up on the ground floor, but judging by the faint sounds of battle coming from above his head, he was still a floor or two below. Just as he was about to turn a corner, he stepped on a grille he hadn't noticed. It must have been loosely fastened, because it snapped open and fell into the room below, bouncing off some cardboard boxes until it hit the floor with a clatter. Ron followed right after it, tumbling off the boxes and landing in a tangled heap.

He got up, groaning and massaging his bruised butt. He seemed to have fallen in some kind of storage room. He noticed a door about ten feet away, past some metal shelving, and just as he pushed away a few smashed boxes, a creak broke the room's silence as the door opened.

He saw himself walk through.

"Whoa," he said. "You look exactly like me!"

"I thought I heard something in here," the other Ron Stoppable said. "Yeah, I'm your synthodrone copy."

"Badical!"

The synthodrone stepped forward. Ron knew he should be on edge, ready to fight – or, more likely, run – but somehow, seeing himself in the flesh was hard to take as a threat. He wondered if the synthodrone was like him in more than just the physical sense. Maybe it depended on when Bortel had made it. From what he had said in the prison complex earlier, it sounded like he had been steadily improving his synthodrones over time.

"Do you have my personality, too?" he asked.

His synthodrone copy stopped and thought for a moment.

"Sort of," he said. "My creator made me using information he got from the syntho-Kim, when she returned to this lair after doing missions with you. He copied your voice, and gave me some of the same interests as you. But he created me before he perfected his MRM technique, so I don't have your memories."

"You have the same interests? Like what, Nacos?"

"Yeah. I love Nacos."

"What about video games?"

"You got it. I love _Zombie Mayhem_. I also enjoy the _Bricks of Fury_ movie series."

"Whoa, which one is your favorite?"

"The first, one of course. They need to get back to the fundamentals – and those CGI bricks in the fourth installment were just ridiculous."

That was, in fact, the correct answer. Ron felt an urge to step forward and give the synthodrone a high five, but thought better of it – he still didn't know what the synthodrone was planning, and seeing as it had been made by Bortel, it was probably dangerous. And yet he couldn't resist talking to it. How often did you get to talk to your mirror image? Unless you were actually speaking into the mirror, anyway. Ron wondered if he and his synthodrone copy would get along well if it hadn't been created by Bortel to replace him at some point. Which of them would win at _Zombie Mayhem, _for instance?

"Most of all, though," said the synthodrone, "I love serving my creator."

Ron frowned. Now that _wasn't_ something he could relate to.

"Sorry, but I have to kill you now."

Ron's eyes bugged out in surprise. "Wait, what? Why don't you just kidnap me? Don't you need to suck the memories out of my brain with the MRM to make yourself a better copy?"

"No. Cyrus Bortel didn't think you were important, dude. So my job is to make sure you, Team Go, and Global Justice don't escape from this lair alive. Sorry. Get ready to die!"

"That is _so_ not cool!"

The synthodrone leaped at Ron, who dodged out of the way just in time to avoid its grasping hands. It fell to the floor in a heap. Ron darted back, weaving in and out of several rows of shelves, until he realized he was going the wrong way if he wanted to escape the room – unfortunately, by this time, the synthodrone had already gotten up. It stood between him and the door, inching closer. Ron gulped; facing himself down was less fun than he expected. The synthodrone leaped forward, and this time, there was no room to dodge. Ron found himself pinned to the ground in an instant.

"Dude," said Ron, "maybe we can talk about-"

Ron's words were cut off as the synthodrone wrapped its hands around his throat, choking him This was worse than the time he had been too eager to eat that Naco and gotten a piece of shell lodged in his throat; Ron struggled for breath as his doppelganger pressed down. For a moment, his struggles were in vain – but then, as he felt his air supply running out, Ron felt an intoxicating surge of energy coursing through him. He had only felt it a couple of times before, but he knew what it was:

The Mystical Monkey Power!

He pushed back against his attacker, and in a flash of blue light, the synthodrone was flung against the room's door.

"Ouch," it said. "What was up with _that?_"

Ron wasn't sure what was up with that. Normally, he couldn't seem to control the Mystical Monkey Power – but maybe it had spontaneously surged once his life was being threatened. Whatever had caused it, Ron decided there was no time to stay and chat with his clone any longer, seeing as it was definitely on the evil side, despite being totally right about the CGI bricks. The door was blocked, so Ron clambered quickly up a shelf. It teetered dangerously, but he managed to pull himself back up into the ventilation shaft from which he had dropped.

"Wait up!" yelled the synthodrone.

Ron didn't think he would be waiting up.

He extended a leg back into the room and caught the side of the metal shelving, pushing just enough to send it toppling over. Hopefully it would slow the syntho-Ron down a little. The sound of Global Justice and Team Go battling in the lair were still coming from above him; Ron crawled as quickly as possible through the ventilation shafts in search of a way up. He could call Wade, but he knew Wade didn't have up-to-date schematics, and it was a little hard to get out his Communicator and connect with the boy when he was currently trying to escape from his twin killer.

After several twists and turns, during which Ron was getting the distinct impression he was going in circles, he finally stumbled on a utility ladder going up into a circular hole in the ceiling of the shaft. Ron took the ladder and made his way up. It was hard to tell, but judging by the sound of fighting, he thought he was on the same floor now. The shaft was dark, almost pitch-black. Ron held his penlight in his mouth as he crawled through, checking the occasional grille to see what kind of rooms were on the other side. The sounds of fighting drew closer, and Ron decided it was about to time to break into one of the rooms.

He was about to kick in a grille when he felt something grab his ankle, hard.

"Gotcha!"

"Man," said Ron as he looked back his copy. "You're pretty creepy!"

Ron tried to kick behind him, but the synthodrone dragged him back into a side shaft that branched off from the one he had been crawling through. Where his twin was taking him, Ron didn't know; maybe away from wherever Team Go and Global Justice were. The synthodrone didn't make it far, however, as Ron writhed and fought until it was finally forced to turn back in the confines of the tunnel and attack him. Ron grappled wildly with it.

The two of them banged against the walls of the ventilation ducts. Dull metallic thumps rang through the darkness, and Ron's penlight dropped from his mouth with a clang. It went rolling down an imperceptible incline in the shaft. The synthodrone tried to wrap its hands around his neck again, but in the limited room in the shaft, it couldn't get into a good position to pin him; Ron kneed it in the stomach as it tried to straddle him, making its head bang against the ceiling of the duct with a loud thump.

As the two of them fought, Ron heard a strange sound nearby. Almost like a churning torrent of air.

"Get off me!" he yelled.

"I can't kill you if I get off you!"

"_Exactly!_"

Somehow, Ron managed to get the upper hand, rolling over the synthodrone, only to get stuck against the wall of the duct, unable to move. The synthodrone tried to punch him, but smacked its elbow against the opposite wall of the air duct, wincing in pain. So they could feel pain, at least. Or maybe it was just the imitation of pain, since it had his personality. But there was no time to consider the nature of pain in synthodrones - Ron grabbed it by the stomach and pulled it down again. The two rolled over several times. Ron was just about to try to push it back when, suddenly, the synthodrone dropped out of sight.

"_Aaaagh!_"

Ron stared at a sudden drop where the ventilation shaft cut off. The synthodrone had just fallen over the edge.

He got up, catching his breath, and looked over the side to find the source of the noise; a giant fan about twenty feet down at the bottom of the shaft, its rotors whirring loudly. Ron grimaced at the sight of his synthodrone counterpart, which looked it had been chopped into pieces by the fan blades. He couldn't see any blood – just chunks of syntho-flesh, or whatever they were made of. A few chunky bits tumbled back and forth, like pieces of torn rubber or tofu, batted up into the air by the fan blades a few times before finally falling down into a space behind the fan.

"Jeez, dude," said Ron, even though his twin was obviously not listening. "Get yourself together."

Still, what a disgusting way to go.

As he made his way back in the general direction of the sounds of fighting, Ron couldn't help thinking that the synthodrone's death was kind of cathartic, for some reason. Not that he was happy to kill it – it had died by accident, anyway – but it was like moving past himself, in a way. It would have been cool to have a synthodrone copy of himself that shared all his interests and could drop into school whenever he wanted a day off and take classes for him, but since the thing was an evil pawn of Cyrus Bortel, Ron could only dream of the possibilities an identical twin would offer. He supposed Jim and Tim were living the dream.

After taking another latter up to the next level, the fighting grew louder when Ron turned another corner and reached a grille in the floor. He was about to peer through the metal slats and see what was going on – from the sound of it, the fighting was right below him – but just as he leaned over, he lost his balance and smacked into the grille head first. It was loosely fastened, just like the other one, and Ron fell straight through yet again, cursing his luck with air vent coverings lately.

Fortunately, his fall was broken by something even softer than the cardboard boxes on which he had landed in the storage room earlier. Ron bounced on his soft cushion. As he scrambled up to his feet, he realized he was surrounded by Global Justice agents. Not only that, but Shego's brothers were nearby. Most of them had been looking down a nearby hallway, some of the agents firing some kind of guns, but they all stopped and turned to stare at him. Ron heard a groan and looked down at the floor; he had been smiling sheepishly at the GJ agents, but his smile turned to a frown when he realized his soft cushion had, in fact, been Will Du.

"Dude!" he said. "Sorry about that!"

"I'm sure," said Will Du, getting up gingerly and retrieving his gun from the ground.

"I keep falling out of ventilation shafts today. It totally sucks. What's that gun you have there?"

"A phase rifle."

Ron was about to ask Will where they were when several of the agents started firing again, down the nearby hall He caught a glimpse of several synthodrones lurking in the darkness; although there were blue emergency lights, it was barely enough to see anything clearly unless it was close by. Will grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back as the group moved farther away down the corridor.

"Agent Du!" yelled a voice from down the hall. "Give up and this will be less painful!"

Ron recognized the voice. "Was that Dr. Director?"

"Not exactly."

"Oh, right. Synthodrone copy. I just fought one of myself, but it fell into this big fan up in the ventilation shafts. I dunno why Bortel needs a huge fan with really sharp blades, but I guess it's a supervillain thing. Maybe we could lead those synthodrones up into the shafts and get them to fall into the-"

"Ron Stoppable, we have to move. And there are too many of us to get into the shafts – we'd be trapped."

"Where are we going?"

Judging by Will Du's silence, Ron got the feeling the agent didn't have an answer to his question. "We're trapped in the facility," Du finally said after firing an energy blast from his rifle at a synthodrone that got too close. "All the exits were sealed shut. We need to make our way back to the main entrance and try to break through somehow.- we went to the prison complex, but there was no one in there when we arrived."

"Oh, yeah," said Ron. "I managed to escape, but Bortel took out Kim and Shego and Jack Hench with knockout gas. He's taking them somewhere else, but I don't know where. Also, Kimberly Anne switched sides."

"Again?"

"Yep. I didn't see it coming."

It was true that Ron hadn't seen it coming, but somehow, he still had hope that Kimberly Anne would see the error of her ways. Learning to do the right thing was a steep learning curve for a synthetic being, maybe. There was just something about the way she had worked with him on the missions, the way she had asked about how to be more like Kim Possible, how to make Shego like her again. She just didn't seem evil to him. But maybe it was the strange, upbeat personality that Shego and Bortel had programmed her with. Maybe her friendliness, coupled with the way she reminded him of the real Kim Possible, just kept catching him off guard.

"Sir," one of the agent said to Du. "We need to call Global Justice."

"We were having connection problems last time."

"Then try it again. Duh!"

It was Mego who had shot off the comment. Du frowned as he fired at a synthodrone in the process of lunging at them, knocking it back temporarily. He pressed a button on his wrist communicator and waited for a connection – after a moment, the wrist device beeped loudly. Ron thought it sounded more like a success beep than a failure beep. Sure enough, a voice came from Du's wrist. Ron noticed just the faintest look of relief on Du's face now that he had gotten a connection out of the lair.

"Agent Du," spoke a man in a scientist's lab coat on Du's wrist device. Ron leaned over to watch the conversation, but Du shooed him aside. "We were having trouble catching any signals out of the lair, but Wade Load helped us fix the problem. What's the situation?"

"We're trapped in Cyrus Bortel's lair, Haytham. He sealed off all the exits – we either need to find out a way to re-open the lair from the inside, or someone needs to break through from the outside."

"I'll send more agents."

"Good."

Will Du looked like he was about to close the connection, but he hesitated.

"Is that all?" asked Haytham.

"No."

"What else?"

Ron looked down the hall – the synthodrones were getting closer. The other agents were blasting their phase rifles left and right, and the Megos were doing a good job of replicating themselves and clogging up the hallway to keep the synthodrones from breaking through, but their enemies seemed relentless. Will Du was still hesitating – Ron nudged him on the arm, wondering what the holdup was.

"Alright," said Du. "Haytham, the Kim Possible synthodrone has switched sides again – I am assuming it is with Cyrus Bortel right now."

"You want me to initiate our control routine?"

"That's right. Zero Z Sasquatch."

"Can do."

"What's that do?" asked Ron as Will closed the connection.

Will gave him an impassive look.

"We'll see."

Ron knew it was natural for Will Du to rely on Global Justice, being an agent and all, but the guy was forgetting their most important resource. Ron himself had almost forgotten about it after nearly being knocked out by Bortel's gas at the prison complex and then being throttled by his synthodrone double. But now that he had finally escaped from any immediate danger and seen Will using his wrist communicator, he remembered.

"If you want to figure out a way for us to break out of here," said Ron, "Global Justice isn't your best bet."

"What do you mean?"

Ron fished the Communicator out of his pocket and waved it at the agent with a grin.

"We gotta call my buddy Wade Load!"

XX

A few moments ago, a brief scream had come out of the other room. The cavern wall as at an angle, and Kim couldn't see through the door, but she didn't know who would be screaming besides Jack Hench. Maybe getting your memories extracted from your brain was a painful process. She wondered who would be next between her and Shego; soon Bortel would be returning for his next victim. She could still see Drakken inside the tower that housed the controls for his super laser, as well as Kimberly Anne, sitting over by the collection of mainframes and haphazardly-placed equipment farther away in the cavern.

"Hey, Kim."

She turned to Shego, who was beside her, floating in the air as a result of the levitating foot clamps.

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted to say, if we don't make it – I'm sorry about everything."

"What do you mean?"

"About screwing things up between you and Ron. About trying to manipulate you and get you to join me and Drakken. Obviously _that_ was a bad idea," she said, nodding in her former boss's direction.

Kim laughed. "Yeah, that was. But I lied to you about working for Global Justice, too. And from the sound of it, they've been almost as bad as Drakken. I guess both of us were a little misled about some of the people we worked with. And as for Ron, that was my fault, really. Maybe you planted the idea, but seeing as you were a bad guy, it wasn't that surprising that you'd be going after me whether or not I was in a relationship. I was the one who decided to go after you, in the end."

"So you and Ron aren't together anymore?"

Kim shook her head. "We both decided that wouldn't work."

Shego was silent. Although the woman tried to look very serious, Kim could tell there was a glint of hopefulness in her eye – even excitement. She couldn't help laughing at the sight. "You know, you don't have to act like you're not happy to hear I'm not getting back together with Ron. I realize you're not exactly the type to sympathize with him."

"Well, I'm trying to be! I mean, I guess I'm used to doing what I want, whenever I want, but it's not like I was trying to hurt the kid or anything. And I'm trying to change, too – you have no idea how hard it's been to work with Team Go."

"Who said you have to work with them?"

Shego thought about it, but she seemed to be at a loss for words, until she laughed sheepishly. "You know, Ron said the same thing earlier. I get the feeling he's a little smarter than he looks."

"He is. And he's right. That's not the _only_ way to do the right thing."

"I guess it's just – it's just that it's my past, you know? That felt like the way for me to change."

Kim knew what she meant. While Shego thought change involved returning to her past, Kim had thought change meant cutting away from the past. But, of course, neither of those things were really true. There was no way Kim could leave the past behind, and she didn't want to – Ron would always be a part of her life.

She just wanted Shego in it, too.

After Kim had left Shego behind at Drakken's lair, she had wondered if her accusations were true. She thought Shego was deluding herself, putting up an bad girl act when she wasn't really into the whole supervillain thing the way Drakken was, even if maybe she wasn't exactly a superhero. And Kim didn't need her to be one – she just couldn't be with Shego if she was spending her time engaging in criminal escapes and helping supervillains, that was all. But did that mean she wanted Shego to change who she was? Kim didn't think it _was_ the real Shego, but maybe she was wrong.

Still, Shego seemed to be trying something new, sort of. She was amazed that the woman had been able to get along with her brothers well enough to actually get to Cyrus Bortel's lair and try to rescue her.

Before Kim could think about the possibility of a future with her and Shego, however, she had to think about the present. How to get out of here, in particular. That would be difficult if she was turned into a vegetable by the MRM's memory sucking shenanigans, like Dr. Director beside them. And speaking of vegetables, Cyrus Bortel appeared from the side room, guiding along what looked like a comatose Jack Hench, still in his arm and leg restraints.

"One down!" said Bortel.

At the same time, Drakken emerged from the tower jutting up out of the rift, passing over the metal walkway and rejoining the group. "The laser is calibrated and aimed at your old lair," he said. "It's gathering geothermal power, but it should be ready once you finish uploading everything you need from the lair's system."

As if in answer to his announcement, Kimberly Anne appeared beside them, having finished whatever she was doing over at her little station farther away in the cavern.

"Have you finished?" asked Bortel.

"Yes. All information is uploaded from the lair."

_Gathering energy_, spoke a tinny female voice over the lair's speaker system. _ Please wait fifteen minutes._

Drakken frowned. "Okay, well, maybe we'll have to wait fifteen minutes."

"You don't say?"

"That's enough lip, Shego!"

Kimberly Anne suddenly gave a strange shudder, doubling over for a moment as if she was about to fall over. "What was that?" asked Bortel.

The synthodrone straightened herself out, silently staring ahead with a strange blank expression on her face.

"Global Justice," she said.

"What?"

"Global Justice just tried to access my behavioral subroutines and gain control of me."

Bortel and Drakken both took nervous steps back.

"What does that mean?" asked Bortel. "They can do that?"

The synthodrone shook her head. "Ron Stoppable and I visited Global Justice's Middleton headquarters the other day, and I got a checkup while I was there. They had a scientist who uploaded some code into my system. He thought he was being subtle, but I could tell what he was doing. I let him do it so he wouldn't be suspicious, and I disabled it after I left the facility. That was the same morning you stole the MRM."

"Ah," said Bortel, still sounding suspicious. "It was code to control you?"

"Yes. I left enough of a trace that I could tell when they were attempting to activate the coding, and they just did. I think" - she paused for a moment, staring blankly again, and Kim realized she somehow looking inside of herself, doing some kind of check of her systems - "I think they wanted me to kill you."

She pointed to Cyrus Bortel, who took yet another step back.

"But it didn't work?" he asked haltingly.

"No. It was disabled."

"And you are completely loyal to me, correct?"

She gave him a beaming smile.

"Of course!"

A few of the synthodrone henchmen had moved closer, wondering if some kind of attack was imminent, but after another few moments of awkward silence, Bortel seemed to decide he was in no immediate danger. He waved them off and exchanged a nervous laugh with Drakken. Kim was a little disappointed – she wasn't sure what Kimberly Anne would have done if Global Justice had gained control of her, but it could have been the best chance to escape. But from the look of it, the organization had overestimated itself. Not that surprising.

"Anyway," said Bortel, "I definitely need to get control of that organization soon. But on the bright side, if Ron Stoppable, Global Justice, and Team Go have not been overwhelmed by my synthodrone army already, they will soon be vaporized into oblivion, sucked into a pan-dimensional vortex. Perhaps we should float our captives over to a viewing screen so they can enjoy the show. What do you think, Doctor Drakken?"

"Excellent idea."

Shego rolled her eyes. "You know you guys are just going to turn on each other. Just give up with the whole buddy-buddy act, okay?"

"Excuse _me_, Shego," snapped Drakken testily, "but I don't turn on my partners."

The two of them were interrupted by Kimberly Anne, who pointed at Dr. Director and Jack Hench, both floating with blank stares. "What are you going to do with them?" she asked her creator.

Cyrus Bortel looked at his two victims, adjusting his glasses and pursing his lips, as if he hadn't considered the problem before. "Well," he said. "I was thinking of keeping Dr. Director around a little while longer, in case I needed to use her as a hostage if Global Justice does not come under my control very quickly. But perhaps it is a waste of time. I will soon have a synthodrone taking over, and Will Du will be vaporized. I do not need Hench, either. I suppose I will dispose of them. Why do you ask?"

Kimberly Anne pondered the answer. She turned from Hench and Dr. Director and pointed to Kim and Shego.

"What about them?"

"The same. We cannot leave anyone around who knows of our plans, or the fact that I am still alive once we destroy my old lair. That would be a security risk. But as I promised, I will brainwash Shego if you wish, or create a new synthodrone copy for you."

Kim noticed Drakken looking concerned at the news of what was going to happen to Shego. He seemed to want her captive in order to gloat and make her feel jealous about his new syntho-Shego partner, but maybe he hadn't considered what would actually happen once Bortel got everyone's memories extracted and they had no use for the the captives anymore.

Bortel walked over to Shego and placed a hand on her shoulder, about to guide her over to the area of the cavern where Kimberly Anne had been sitting that looked more like a proper lair. Kim heard a low rumbling sound coming from somewhere in the earth, below the rift into which the metal tower descended, as if Drakken's invention was preparing itself. Bortel nodded towards Drakken, indicating he should go prepare to fire his Super Laser on the old lair, and Drakken hesitantly walked back towards the walkway that connected to the tower.

Kim was about to protest, asking that Bortel take her first. But he stopped abruptly, a few feet ahead of her with Shego by his side, facing Kim's synthodrone counterpart. Kimberly Anne had pulled something out of her cargo pants pocket so quickly that Kim almost didn't notice it at first.

A strange mark appeared in the hair on the back of Bortel's head. It was dark red and gray in color. Kim stared at it, trying to figure out what had just happened, until the gray pinpoint disappeared. A spray of blood appeared in front of Bortel's head as Kimberly Anne retracted the hook she had just fired out of the grappling gun she was holding gun in her hand.

She returned it to her pants pocket as Bortel's corpse dropped to the ground in a heap.

"I see why you like to use this."

Kim stared in shock for a few moments before she realized her twin was talking to her. The synthodrone looked down at the grappling gun, turning it in her hand. "My creator took it from you when he kidnapped you and brought you to his lair – I hope you didn't mind me using it."

Shego gaped at the sight of Bortel's corpse, and Drakken had turned back halfway across the cavern at the sound of Bortel's body hitting the rocky cavern floor. He was also frozen in shock. Maybe Global Justice's control codes hadn't kicked in until a few moments later, thought Kim. And yet, something about the delay seemed strange. Kim gulped as her synthodrone clone stepped forward, grappling gun in hand.

Maybe it _wasn't_ Global Justice. Maybe Kimberly Anne had just taken out her own creator for threatening to dispose of the real Shego. Green-skinned clones or brainwashing weren't enough for her. Kimberly Anne had failed to kill Kim near the hospital – but now that there was only one obstacle in the way of her being with Shego again, Kim wondered if her replacement was about to finish the job.


	23. Human

**Human**

XX

Was a synthodrone supposed to care about its creator?

Kimberly Anne wasn't sure, but the choice had been clear, even before Cyrus Bortel told her what he was going to do with Shego. It had been obvious for a while that she was being led along, used, so he could get what he wanted. Kimberly Anne had been willing to ignore that for a while, since she was using Bortel to get what she wanted, too. But that hadn't worked out.

She had been remotely connected to the system in Cyrus Bortel's old lair, where Shego's brothers and Global Justice were trapped, looking through his defenses and understanding the details of how he controlled his synthodrone henchmen, but she had also been looking through Drakken's system, now that they were at his new lair. She had discovered how to unlock the restraints he was using to keep Kim and Shego captive, and now she could release them.

"By the way," said Drakken, still frozen in place about a dozen feet away, "you know I had no intention of harming Shego, right synthodrone Kim? That was all Bortel's idea. As a matter of fact, I was just going to reunite you and Shego after I stole his updated synthodrone technology! That was the plan all-"

Kimberly Anne ignored Drakken and approached Kim, tracing a pattern on a small green touch-sensitive square indented into the side of her hand restraints, which unlocked them. She did the same with the foot restraints, and they broke apart, no longer levitating as Kim's feet hit the ground. Kim looked at her, confused, while she turned to Shego and did the same thing. It was alien technology that Drakken had taken from Warmonga; the pattern, maybe, was something in the Warlordian language. The two former captives massaged their wrists as they stood free.

"I don't get it," said Kim. "I totally thought you were going to shoot me with my own grappling gun."

Kimberly Anne shook her head. She handed Kim the grappling gun.

"You weren't working for Bortel?" asked Shego.

"I used to be, but no. I knew I wasn't going to get what I wanted as soon as you saw me trying to kill Kim in the hospital parking lot – and I knew Bortel was just trying to use me. I was confused at first, but I decided I didn't want to work with him once he told me to kidnap Ron Stoppable. So I joined you guys."

Shego and Kim looked at each other, confused. "Then why did you double cross us when we got caught in Bortel's prison complex?" asked Shego.

"I didn't. I was on my way to the synthodrone production center to try to hack into Bortel's system and disable everything, but my creator was already there. I couldn't avoid him without being seen, and I heard him talking about taking you guys somewhere else, so I decided the best thing to do was to pretend I was on his side, and see where he was going. Otherwise, he'd capture me with the rest of you, and nobody would know where we went."

Kim still seemed nervous, like she was expecting Kimberly Anne to snatch the grappling gun back out of her hand and shoot her at any moment. Kimberly Anne supposed it was understandable; she had tried to kill her human counterpart, after all, and the sight of Bortel's dead body on the ground was probably making them uncomfortable. The body didn't really bother her – she wondered if she disliked the man after he had used her, not to mention creating her in the first place when her place in the world was already taken by someone else. Or maybe she still had a lot to learn when it came to morality. When it came to how she had tried to kill Kim, at least, she did feel guilty.

"I'm sorry about trying to kill you at the hospital," she said. "It seemed like the best thing to do."

Kim laughed awkwardly. "Hey, it's not like Shego hasn't tried to kill me from time to time."

Shego joined in the awkward laughter.

The three of them stood uncomfortably for a moment until they noticed Drakken taking a few steps away while motioning for his synthodrone henchmen to come closer. Kimberly Anne noticed Shego's double approaching, too. Shego had been upset at seeing a synthodrone version of herself, even though she had asked Cyrus Bortel to make Kimberly Anne. Maybe Shego had made mistakes, too, and she was trying to learn from them. Kimberly Anne wished the syntho-Shego could be enough for her, but it wasn't. Bortel's promises of brainwashing and synthetic copies weren't enough. She wanted the real thing.

And that was why, after all her confusion, she truly understood why Shego didn't want her.

"Well," said Drakken, "so much for Bortel's plan. I think I'll be heading out now, but it was fun while it lasted. Syntho-Shego, synthodrones – cover me!"

Drakken darted off in the direction of a stairway carved into the rock wall at the far end of the cavern, but stopped at the entrance to another room on the way. "Sacke!" he yelled. "Get out of the lounge and escape with me already!"

"What? What's going on?"

"The captives are free, and Bortel got shot through the head, you fool!"

Assad Sacke emerged from the room with a bag of chips in his hand.

"I was watching _Ballroom with B Actors_, sorry."

"Yes, that's why I fired you from being Chief Officer in charge of Kim Possible detection. Synthodrones – keep her away from me while Assad and I escape! Sacrifice yourselves!"

Drakken pointed at Shego before he and his right-hand man ran off in the direction of the stairs, which led to the concealed mountain entrance to the lair, not far from where Bortel, after escaping from his own lair with his subordinates, had landed the hoverjet behind a concealed ridge. Kimberly Anne raised the grappling gun and aimed it at Drakken, but before she could fire, both Shego and Kim grabbed her by the arm and pulled it down.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Um, he may be the bad guy, but we don't kill bad guys," said Kim.

Kimberly Anne nodded. Now that she thought about it, Ron had the same rule – back when they were infiltrating the Seniors' lair, she had been on the verge of killing Junior when Ron had sensed she was unsure of how to proceed and told her to just let him loose for GJ to take care of things. Maybe Kim and Shego would have preferred it if she had not killed Bortel, either. But what was done was done.

_Gathering energy_, spoke the automated voice again. _Please wait ten minutes._

The synthodrones drew closer, with Shego's synthetic counterpart in the lead. Shego crouched a little, like she was getting ready to strike her synthetic twin, while Kim grabbed Kimberly Anne by the arm. "You need to go over there to the communications equipment and call Wade," she said. "Everybody over at Cyrus Bortel's lair is still in trouble – Wade can find a way to get them out."

"Okay. I think I know how to disable the synthodrones, too."

"Good. We'll try to keep you covered."

Kimberly Anne moved to the side, approaching the communications platform where she had been sitting earlier while she was infiltrating Cyrus Bortel's system. One of the synthodrone henchmen tried to stop her, but she knocked it easily to the side as Kim and Shego blocked them off. As they began to fight, Kimberly Anne couldn't help watching them for a moment.

They were a good team. Bortel's synthodrones were strong, and Kimberly Anne wasn't sure Kim and Shego could hold out forever, but they were holding them back for now, at least. She knew they had fought each other for years, and being enemies for so long must have given them an appreciation for each other's styles, as they seemed to work as one when the synthodrones attacked them. She had elements of both their styles inside of herself – Shego had given Bortel information on Kim's fighting style when her creator made her, and Kimberly Anne had picked up much of Shego's style during those fights in the old lair they had, when she and Shego lived together, before it got blown up.

The memory of fighting Shego brought a smile to her face. She wished she could have that again, but it was in the past. Shego had a new partner now, and Kimberly Anne was learning to accept that.

XX

Wade didn't usually tag along with Kim and Ron on their missions, but sometimes he wished he did. Of course, he probably would have just been captured along with them, and he wouldn't be able to do as much without the resources he had in his bedroom command center. Maybe if he had a mobile bedroom...

Ron had called him up not long ago, after a long silence on Ron's end – apparently he had been under attack by a synthodrone copy of himself. Wade was kind of surprised the two of them hadn't just shared a few jokes, or bonded over their mutual love of Nacos. Fortunately, Ron had gotten the better of his synthodrone doppelganger – unfortunately, Kim Possible and the other captives had been taken somewhere else by Cyrus Bortel, after the supervillain had locked his attackers into his lair. Wade had been trying to break into Bortel's system, but the lair itself was cut off from the outside not just physically, but electronically. Even communicating with Ron on the Communicator had been shaky at first, with the jamming mechanisms Bortel had put into place.

"Wade, honey?" His mother's voice came from his doorway. Wade turned to see her standing in the hallway in her night dress, yawning and giving him an annoyed look. "What are you doing up so late?"

"Fighting supervillains, mom."

"Can't you play your computer game tomorrow?"

"No, I mean like in real life."

"Oh." She frowned. "With your little friends, Kim and Ron?"

Wade nodded. "They're kind of in terrible danger. Not that I mind you interrupting me or anything, it's just that – well, Cyrus Bortel is trying to kill them with synthodrone henchmen, and they had these doppelgangers that were going to replace them and-"

"Synthowhatsits? Doppawhos? Wade, sweetie, you need some sleep."

"I'll go to sleep soon, I promise."

"Well, you gotta save your friends, I know. Just try to keep the volume down, will you? I'm tryin' to get some rest – you can fight evil with headphones on."

"Okay, mom. Hey, did you tape _Ballroom with B Actors?_"

"I sure did. You should have seen what Dennis did! That dang fool fell right off the-"

Wade nodded in the direction of his computer bank and smiled sheepishly. His mother got the hint. "Alright," she said. "Good luck."

Wade turned back to his bank of computer monitors as his mother closed the door and padded off down the hallway back to her bedroom. One of the benefits of doing these missions from his bedroom instead of tagging along with his friends was that it saved him from potential embarrassment by his mother. Kim and Ron had told him about how Drakken's mother embarrassed him by showing up while he was trying to take over the world – and while Wade didn't have much in common with the blue-skinned man, that was an instance where he could sympathize. He could imagine his mom doing exactly that. He was about to check on the status of Ron's tracking chip to see where he was in the lair when he got a message on one of his monitors. Someone was calling him.

"Hello?" he said, opening up a video screen.

"Wade Load?"

It was Kim. Wade smiled; this was the first time he had gotten in contact with her since she had been kidnapped. If she was able to call him, that was a good sign. Although the way she had greeted him as a question was kind of strange...

"Oh," he said. "You're Kimberly Anne?"

"That's right! I'm calling from Drakken's new lair."

"His new lair? Say what?"

"He's got a lair not far from my creator – the two of them teamed up. It looks like we might be out of danger now, but we need to save Ron and the other people stuck in Bortel's lair."

"If you have a way to get me into his system, I think I can figure it out."

The synthodrone smiled politely. "Oh, I think I already know how to break down his defenses, and destroy his synthodrones, too. I have a link into the system already – my creator wanted me to upload some information from his old lair before he destroyed it with Drakken's Pan-Dimensional Vortex-Inducing Super Laser, so I gained access to his synthodrone production center by remote connection."

Wade frowned when he noticed something behind Kimberly Anne's head, farther away in the cavern from which she was transmitting. He had also seen Kim and Shego fighting some henchmen types just a moment ago, but that was fairly normal – however, as far as he could tell, there was a body on the ground, along with what looked like blood. "Um, who is that back there?" he asked.

"On the ground? Oh, that's my creator."

"Bortel? Is he – is he dead?"

"Yes. I killed him!"

The synthodrone smiled again, as if happy to explain what was going on to Wade. After a brief nauseated feeling, Wade decided it was probably best not to ask questions – time was of the essence, anyway. From the sound of it, he had been totally out of the loop this time. Maybe Bortel was a better first-time supervillain than he would have expected, even if apparently the first time would be his only time. "So wait," he said. "Why are you calling me if you can get everybody out of Bortel's lair yourself?"

"Kim wanted me to call you. And I thought you could use an update."

"Oh," said Wade flatly. "Well, uh, thanks."

"I think I'll reconnect to Bortel's lair now so I can bring down his defense mechanisms and neutralize his synthodrones. Bortel should have a remote killswitch for the synthodrones, like he wanted to use when he was trying to neutralize me after I left Shego – if I can access that, I should be able to destroy all his synthodrone henchmen."

Wade nodded. He couldn't object to that.

"Um – can I follow what you're doing?"

"Of course."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"You can call Ron, or Will Du, and tell them they need to flip a circuit breaker at the synthodrone production center in a moment. Otherwise the power won't return, and I won't be able to retract the shielding that Bortel brought down around all the exits, and they won't be able to get out."

Wade nodded and got ready to make a call as Kimberly Anne got ready to make her connection to Bortel's system. He brought a few windows up on a couple of his monitors, watching the process to see what the synthodrone would do. The fact that Kimberly Anne seemed two steps ahead of him was making him feel insecure – usually _he_ was the one to handle the technical stuff. But maybe it was just because she was a synthodrone made in Bortel's lab. It was just coincidence, really – she was best suited to break in and mess with his system. Normally, he'd be the go to guy, for sure.

_Yeah_, he told himself. _ That's all it is._

XX

Things had been looking grim for a while, but now that Wade and Kimberly Anne were communicating, it sounded to Ron like they had an escape plan. Wade had just called them up to let them know Kim and Shego were alright – along with Jack Hench and Dr. Director, although apparently they weren't alright so much as turned into vegetables, but hopefully that was temporary. Not only that, but Wade knew how to get them out. Maybe Kimberly Anne did, from the sound of it, although Wade had sounded a little defensive about it, like he wanted to be the rescuer.

Either way, all they had to do now was get to the synthodrone production center. And they were almost there.

"Agent Orange!"

Will shouted in warning, but the agent had strayed too far from the group – before he could dart back into the makeshift formation that the Global Justice agents were trying to hold, he was surrounded on all sides by synthodrones. Ron saw one of the creepier ones – the one with the spindly arms and legs that reminded him of a spider – stride forward and wrap a long arm around the agent, pulling him back into a crowd of synthodrones with a scream. The other agents drew closer to each other as Will Du and Team Go led the way towards the production center.

"I don't know why he was wearing that red shirt," said Will Du. "I told them to suit up in their Global Justice uniforms before the mission – he was only drawing attention to himself."

"Dude, he just got sucked into a mob of freaky synthodrones, and you're thinking about his shirt?"

"It's my way of coping."

Ron shrugged. Maybe Will had a point. By now, he had already lost several of his agents. They passed into a control room, which Ron recognized as the room leading directly to the synthodrone production center. Hego used his super strength to lift up a table in each hand, sending papers flying all over the room as he strode forward and placed them at the door they had just come through as a makeshift barrier. "We're lucky," he said. "These are just as strong as the one we fought at the mayor's mansion in Go City, but they seem to be a lot more stupid."

"Yeah," said Mego, helping his brother maneuver a table into place. "No moves at all. Their only advantage is that they pretty much can't die and there's a lot of them."

Will shot a blast from his phase rifle at a hand that tried to snake around the door. It drew back, letting Team Go close it the rest of the way. "They must have been made quickly by Bortel to slow us down. Come on, everyone, to the synthodrone production center."

"To the synthodrone production center!" echoed Hego.

Ron noticed Will rolling his eyes in a rare expression of obvious irritation. The two of them had been clashing a little over who was leader, but there was no time to actually fight about it, seeing as they had been on the run from a horde of synthodrone enemies ever since they had been lured into the lair as a trap. The group passed into the synthodrone production center, heading for the central hub that connected a number of halls lined with gestation vats.

Before they reached it, however, still more synthodrones poured out from the other side of the hallway. The lair was too maze-like, there were too many branching halls and exits – even when they thought they had one area blocked off, the synthodrones could come from another angle. "We need to get past them," said Will Du. "Wade said the circuit breaker was on the far side of the hub."

"I can get to it," said Ron.

"Are you sure?"

"Watch the Ron Man go to work, dude!"

Ron took a deep breath, facing down the group of synthodrones approaching him from across the hall. _Just like football_, he thought. Maybe a little less room than a field, and the other team at a normal game wasn't exactly trying to tear him apart, but it was close enough. He raced into the crowd, dodging and weaving through his opponents to avoid one of them grabbing him and jerking him off balance. This was even easier without a ball to fumble, too!

He reached the column in the central hub of the synthodrone production center, skirting around to the other side and scanning the various knobs and buttons that ran up and down its length. He didn't know how Cyrus Bortel could make sense of the thing – it seemed like the entire column was just a bunch of technology jumbled together in a meaningless mass. The synthodrones he had just passed would be converging on him at any moment, although he knew Team Go and Global Justice were holding some of them off.

"Wade," he said, pulling out his communicator. "Where's the circuit breaker?"

Kimberly Anne's face flickered into view in Wade's place. "Center left, Ron! It's steel gray!"

"Oh, hey, Kimberly Anne. I guess this is like another mission for us, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so!"

The two of them smiled until Wade's voice came in over Kimberly Anne's face.

"Um, guys, no time for that. Flip that switch, Ron!"

Ron looked back at the column. It was hard to see anything, since the production facility was dark and the column didn't seem to be powered. He could just barely make out four steel gray switches where Kimberly Anne had told him to look – and a few knobs, levers, and weird-looking handle thingies for good measure. Ron decided that, when in doubt, the best thing to do was press everything and pray. He ran his hands over the column's controls and hit everything possible, making sure to flip anything that was flippable in particular.

A strange rumbling sound echoed through Bortel's lair. Ron let out a whoop of triumph when, following a whir of activity coming from the column, its monitors and readouts flickered with light. The synthodrone production facility was still fairly dark, but the column, at least, bubbled and blinked into life. The main power was back on. And it was a good thing, too – just as he had finished, the first of the synthodrones he had dodged earlier appeared from around the side of the column.

Ron punched one in the face, but two more rushed in, forcing him to leap back and skirt around the column again. He passed through the same group of synthodrones, but this time a number of them had converged on Team Go and Global Justice. One of the agents accidentally fired a blast from his phase rifle near Ron. He ducked as the shot whizzed over his head. He got the feeling some of his hair had been singed. Hopefully just the cowlick. He returned to Will Du's side as the group began to move back.

"Nice job, Ron Stoppable," said Will Du. "I am somewhat impressed."

"You're not really, _really_ impressed?"

"Only somewhat."

Ron frowned. "Well, that's good enough, I guess."

'Somewhat impressed' was probably high praise from Will Du, anyway.

Now that the power was back on, they could leave the synthodrone production center and make their way to the main doors, which hopefully would be open – or, at least, they could find a way to short circuit it or something. Will Du and Hego led the group back out of the center, although they had to take a different route since a large number of synthodrones were blocking the way they had come. Ron could see the fat one lodged in the entrance, its mouth opened in an angry yell. It didn't have any eyes or other facial featues that he could see, other than the mouth. Bortel had definitely been doing some strange things with his synthodrones before his uninvited guests had arrived.

They were about to take a longer route around the control room they had left behind and try to reach the main doors from a different direction, but just as they left the production center, a familiar figure stepped out from around a corner: the synthodrone version of Dr. Director. Will Du stopped, his rifled raised, but he seemed to hesitate instead of firing. It was enough of a pause for the synthodrone to leap forward and knock him over, the phase rifle clattering off across the floor.

Much of the group was still in the production center, just past the door that led into the new room, and they were still fending off the other synthodrones. Ron rushed at the syntho-Director and tried to pull it back, but it caught him with a sweeping blow across the chest and sent him flying backwards. It returned its attention to Will Du.

"Sorry, Will," it said. "I'm going to have to put you into an early retirement!"

"Laaame!" said Ron.

The synthodrone didn't seem to care whether its quips were lame or not, as it wrapped its hands around Will Du and began to choke the man. Ron was creeped out – the synthodrones seemed to have a preference for choking, at least when they weren't carrying around syringes filled with tranquilizers. Maybe it was just something Bortel had programmed into them, or maybe they thought it was an effective attempt to kill their enemies. For the second time that night – or maybe it was morning now – Ron felt a surge of energy welling up within him. Something about the sight of Will Du in danger, about to be choked to death by his boss's evil clone-

There was an elevator nearby, a few feet away from where Dr. Director and Will Du were struggling on the ground. Ron noticed the doors were opened to an empty shaft – something about the power being flipped off and on must have caused problems, and the elevator wasn't functioning properly. Either way, it was a fortunate opportunity, Ron thought. He rushed forward and knocked the syntho-Director off Will Du, his Mystical Monkey Power giving him enough of an edge that he could overpower its sheer strength.

The synthodrone got up from the floor. Ron hadn't quite knocked it far enough.

"This isn't any of your business," it snapped. "Your copy will take care of you soon!"

"My synthodrone twin?" said Ron. "He was pretty cool, but we had to say goodbye. He was real cut up about it."

Will Du and the syntho-Director stared at Ron in confusion.

"Cut up, like – he dropped into a fan. It cut him into pieces."

They seemed to understand now, but Will Du wrinkled his nose.

"That's a little morbid."

"What, I can't make bad puns?"

Ron barely had time to react – Dr. Director was finished talking, and rushed forward to attack him. By this time, the rest of the group had already entered the room, but they were doing more harm than help; Team Go was blocked off by the agents in front, who shot several haphazard blasts from their phase rifles, barely missing Ron. He dodged several of the synthodrone's attacks, but first one punch, then another, caught in the chest. Ron stumbled back and tried to concentrate on his energy. Something about being trapped down here, about the urgency in their situation – Ron knew he had the power. He _knew_ he could control it.

And with that, he levitated off the ground for a moment, a halo of blue energy surrounding him. Ron looked down and saw his feet casting shadows across the metal floor. He grinned at the sight. _This_ was what he was talking about!

Even the syntho-Director paused for a moment, wondering what was going on. That was enough of an opportunity for Ron to send himself hurtling forward, catching the synthodrone with a spinning kick that knocked it off the ground and sent it flying back, square into the open elevator shaft. It hit the back wall of the shaft with a loud thunk. Although it tried to grab hold of the cables hanging from the shaft's ceiling, it was too late – Ron saw it glance down for a split second, eyes widened in surprise, before it dropped silently down the shaft.

A moment later, he heard another thumk. This one was fainter.

"You think that took it out?" asked the Wegos.

"Maybe not," said Will Du, "but thank you for saving me, Ron Stoppable."

"No prob. Now let's get out of here!"

XX

Shego circled her last two opponents as they waited for an opening. It was down to her synthetic counterpart and another nameless syntho-henchman. Kim was in the little control station inside Drakken's laser tower, trying to disable the thing, but it wasn't looking promising. They weren't sure if the laser was going to fire automatically once the energy was gathered, or if it needed authorization – not only that, but Kim was reluctant to press anything she didn't understand when the laser was aimed at Cyrus Bortel's lair and everyone was trapped within. But she was occupied, and that left Shego to keep the synthodrones off Kimberly Anne's back while she broke into Bortel's system and tried to rescue everyone.

When Drakken had fled, he had left behind three synthodrone henchmen, not counting Shego's counterpart; Bortel had only taken along a small group in his escape from the lair. Two of the other synthodrones had been disabled by a neat trick on Kim's part. She had picked up one of the levitating foot clamps which Drakken had used to restrain them earlier and tried to catch one of their synthodrone enemies with it – while it was too fast to try to clamp its legs together, she had managed to attach the clamp to just one of its legs, which resulted in an amusing scene as the synthodrone tried to hop on one leg as the other one kept floating a foot up from the ground thanks to its restraint. It could still punch awkwardly, but it was pretty much useless in combat. The other leg clamp had gone on a second synthodrone, which left Shego with a more manageable pair of opponents.

"Hey, Princess, how's it going in there?"

Shego was close enough to the walkway which crossed over the rift to the tower that she could shout in Kim's direction. She saw the teen behind the glass window in the tower's side, fiddling with the controls. "I can't seem to shut it off," Kim yelled.

_Gathering energy. Please wait five minutes._

Her synthodrone counterpart seemed to be hanging back a little, but the last synthodrone rushed at her, trying to take advantage of Shego's distraction as she heard Kim's answer. Fortunately, she wasn't very distracted. The two of them fought hard, but it was obvious that she had the upper hand – the synthodrone was powerful, dealing heavy blows, but it didn't seem to have much martial arts ability. Not compared to the copy of mayor Bill Vito that she had fought with her brothers in his mansion. Maybe these henchmen had been made with less intelligence, or made more hastily. Shego blocked its blows easily, and began to push it back with her own flurry of attacks.

Eventually the two of them reached the communications station where Kimberly Anne was busy. Shego glanced over and noticed that Kim's synthodrone counterpart seemed to be connected to a mainframe of some kind through a cable that was hooked directly into its skin. Shego grimaced; synthodrones were strange. Almost as an afterthought, she planted a solid kick into the chest of her opponent, sending it stumbling back into a heavy-looking piece of equipment, which toppled over on it with a crash. Although she knew it wasn't enough to kill the synthodrone, not by a long shot, it looked like the thing was pinned at least temporarily. She returned her attention to her doppelganger.

"Why did you leave Drakken?" asked the other Shego. "I've been trying to understand it, but it just doesn't compute. He's such a great boss, and handsome, too!"

"You've been programmed to think that."

"Aren't you programmed by your genes?"

"Not the same."

Shego didn't want to engage in a philosophical discussion about free will and what separated her from the synthodrone – she knew a debate like that would just end up leaving her unsettled, anyway. Right now, she wanted to get rid of her abomination of a twin, never mind the moral implications. She charged forward, trying to catch the synthodrone in a left hook, but it dodged narrowly aside and dealt Shego a sharp blow in her side. They exchanged a few more jabs, each blocked by the other, before separating again for a moment.

"You weren't loyal enough," said the syntho-Shego. "You need to be replaced!"

Shego snarled and threw a burst of green plasma, which the synthodrone dodged. She looked over her synthodrone twin and wondered why she had worked for Drakken so long in the first place. She told herself it was just to make fun of him, to be around to laugh at his schemes when the failed – and yet she had really cared about him, in her own way. But Drakken was like a child when things didn't go his way. She had created a copy of Kim Possible to deal with unresolved attraction, at least – Drakken had created this synthodrone, as far as she could tell, just to be vindictive. Just to get back at her for not doing what he wanted.

And it wasn't even like her, either. It seemed to have some martial arts skills, but Shego could tell she was superior – although maybe that was just Bortel making the thing in a hurry to seal whatever partnership he had thought he shared with Drakken. But the personality, too, was ridiculous. The synthodrone was like a clueless slave. It was insulting. Was that really what Drakken wanted?

The sight of her synthodrone clone smiling made her feel bad about Kimberly Anne, too. She seemed to be developing her own personality, but when Shego had made her, she knew Kimberly Anne wasn't like the real Kim Possible, either. She had that same simple smile. She had been an exaggerated, stereotypical version of Kim – peppy, positive, a goody-two-shoes – a way to fulfill some fetish that Shego had about Kim without actually bothering to get to know the real girl. She understood why Kim had wanted the thing gone. Why, when she had seen it again, the sight had been enough to motivate Kim to break off their budding relationship.

The syntho-Shego attacked again, and in her preoccupation with the mistake she had made by creating Kimberly Anne, Shego was caught off guard. The two of them went stumbling back as the synthodrone hit her with its full weight, and they toppled down on the metal walkway that crossed the rift around the laser tower. Shego tried to grapple her opponent for a moment, but now that she didn't have the advantage of standing up, the synthodrone's strength came into play more easily. She felt her opponent pin her down with brute force, straddling her waist with powerful thighs. Shego couldn't help getting just the tiniest bit aroused – she _did_ like fighting a lot, after all, and something about being straddled by a synthodrone copy of herself, well-

"Face it," said her copy. "You weren't good enough. You failed Doctor Drakken, and he created a better version of you. You're obsolete, and I am the new and improved Shego!"

Shego narrowed her eyes. At this point, the synthodrone could have lobbed a ball of green plasma point blank into her face, but she did not. Where did it get off, thinking it was new and improved? Not only did it fail to match her martial arts skills, not only was it a slave to Drakken, but it didn't even have the powers the meteor had given her. This thing was an abomination. And, as she noticed Kim emerge from the tower's control room and rush across the walkway, it was just about at the end of its lifespan.

"Get away from her, you bitch!"

Shego wasn't even sure what happened, but there was a flurry of red hair, and in a split second, the synthodrone's thighs had released themselves from her waist. She caught a glimpse of green skin, a startled look, before the synthodrone went flying over the railing on the side of the walkway.

Kim extended a hand and helped her up. Shego got up and looked over the edge just in time to see her synthodrone clone disappearing into the black depths of the rift.

"Yikes."

Kim raised an eyebrow before turning away from the edge. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I think so. What about the laser?"

Kim shook her head. The two of them walked over to Kimberly Anne, who was still busy doing whatever it was she was doing while she was connected to Bortel's lair. The last remaining synthodrone was still struggling to free itself from the upended piece of machinery; the two who had been caught by Drakken's levitating leg restraints had been locked away in another room before Kim went to try to disable the laser.

"So what do we do now?" asked Shego.

As the two of them watched, Kimberly Anne's eyes seemed to flicker for a moment. She had been sitting stock still for minutes on end, but she reached down and extracted the cable from her skin and got up. Shego noticed the flesh spontaneously healing where the cable had been inserted with some kind of sharp end. These synthodrones were definitely dangerous when Bortel took the time to really polish them up.

"What happened?" asked Kim. "Did they escape?"

"They're getting out," said Kimberly Anne. "And the synthodrones are neutralized."

Shego looked over at the one which had been caught beneath the fallen piece of equipment. Sure enough, its twitching abruptly stopped, its legs and arms settling down on the rocky cavern floor as it withered into a disturbing husk of its former self. That took care of _one_ problem. But judging by the ominous rumbling rising up from within the gaping rift that cut through the cavern floor, Shego got the impression there was another problem coming.

"Can you get Wade on the screen?" asked Kim, pointing to a monitor near her synthodrone counterpart.

Kimberly Anne nodded and typed in a command, bringing up Wade's face.

"Hey," the boy said. "Nice to see you again, Kim. And you too, Shego. Okay, I have to admit, seeing _you_ is a little weird, but-"

Kim didn't mind Wade's banter, but there wasn't time for it. "Wade, we have a problem here," she said, interrupting him. "I was trying to disable Drakken's laser over here in his lair, but I can't seem to get it to shut down. It's like it keeps building up power."

"Um, okay, hold on. I'm looking into it. Get Kimberly Anne on it, too."

"Already looking."

Shego raised an eyebrow at Kimberly Anne. She was glad they had not one, but two technical experts helping them out, although maybe the synthodrone's expertise was more centered on Cyrus Bortel's lair and synthodrone henchmen, since she had such a strong connection to both. She waited for one of them to shut down the laser – if they could do that, everyone was out of danger, as far as she knew. Before Wade or the synthodrone said anything, however, the automated female voice rang out over the lair's speaker system.

_Powering up complete. Firing laser._

"No!"

Kim's yell echoed through the lair as the two of them turned and stared at the tower.

A translucent stripe running up its side began to glow with white light, which rose up from the depths of the rift in the floor and traveled through the tower, disappearing again through the twin rift in the ceiling. The rumbling grew louder, and Shego felt a strange sensation – like a wave of heat washing over her, as if the rift in the cavern floor had belched forth some kind of hot gas from its depths. A few pebbles fell from the cavern ceiling as she felt a noticeable vibrating sensation in her feet. The tower emitted a strange sound, and the white stripe along its side pulsed brightly.

"Wade," said Kim. "What's going on?"

"It fired the laser at Cyrus Bortel's lair."

"Did Ron and everyone else get out in time?"

"I don't know yet, they – hold on, there's a problem -"

"The laser tower is going to overheat," said Kimberly Anne, plugged into the lair's computer system.

Everyone fell silent, waiting for her to elaborate.

"Drakken built it in a hurry, and he used the Tunneler for the Utilization of Sub-Crustal Heat Induction and Energy in order to get the geothermal energy he needed to power it. But it's not made very well, and it's less reliable as a result of being modified to work with the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer. The whole system is very unstable."

"He stole his TUSHIE from Jack Hench's laboratory," said Wade. "It was just a prototype."

Kimberly Anne typed in a few more commands and looked over at the tower. Shego followed her gaze; she was definitely feeling a strange sensation now, like the entire cavern was beginning to rise in temperature, and she took a step back in surprise as she noticed the bulk of the tower tremble for a moment. A strange snapping sound came from the black crevice in the ceiling, through which the tower rose up and disappeared. A moment later and the tower seemed to lurch sideways. It was almost imperceptible, but Shego had definitely seen it.

_Meltdown warning,_ spoke the automated voice. _Please shut off energy gathering._

"The system is cascading," said Kimberly Anne. "I think there's some kind of crack at the bottom of the rift, and it's causing a volcanic reaction. The laser tower is collecting too much energy – at this rate, there is going to be a spontaneous vortex induction when the system breaks down."

"English, please," said Shego.

"The Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer," said Kim. "It's going to make a vortex that will wipe out the whole lair."

"Or more," said Wade. "At least the size of Nevada. Maybe larger – we don't know how Drakken's modified it, or how it works with the energy being channeled into it."

Wade was almost cut off by the sound of a loud screech, like two pieces of metal being dragged across each other. The rending sound echoed through the lair, and Shego saw the tower lurch much more noticeably this time, while dipping ominously into the rift. The metal walkway connecting the tower's small control room to the cavern itself snapped off from the sharp angle, falling into the black rift as the tower itself sank at least a dozen feet before stopping abruptly.

"It's getting really hot in here," said Kim.

"You guys need to evacuate, right now," said Wade, his worried face looking through the monitor.

"But we need to shut off the tower!"

Wade typed furiously. "There's a manual shutoff inside the control room – you need to get a pair of keys and turn them at the same time – but it's already too hot in the tower itself to go inside. It's conducting the heat energy up from the rift. You guys will be killed if you try to turn it off."

"Well, we have to do something!"

The tower sank deeper still, and Shego took a step back along with Kim, wondering if it was about to break apart and come crashing over the sides of the rift and into the cavern. Maybe they would have to take their chances and hope the vortex wasn't as big as Wade was fearing. But before Shego could convince Kim to make a run for it, she felt a finger tapping her on the shoulder. She and Kim turned to look at Kimberly Anne, who had stood up from her chair at the communications station.

"I can do it," she said.

"No," said Wade. "It's too hot for you, too. You'll just melt!"

"I can last longer than they can."

Wade was silent. Which meant Kimberly Anne was probably right.

Shego stared at her former synthodrone lover, trying to make sense of her offer. The synthodrone was offering to kill herself – and for what? She had been rejected by Shego, and she couldn't have any love for Kim, seeing as Kim was the human being who took her place, the obstacle in the way of what she wanted. Why would Kimberly Anne put her life on the line now? If they _did_ escape the cavernous lair, she had the greatest chance of outrunning the blast, too – she didn't tire, and she was stronger than either of them.

"Are you sure?" asked Kim.

"Yes, I'm sure."

Shego looked around. Judging by the temperature and the amount of debris beginning to fall from the ceiling, they didn't have much time. She wished there was some time to find another way, to change something, but she felt her survival instinct kicking in. She and Kim needed to get out of there. But she still felt a pang of guilt when she looked at Kimberly Anne. Her creation. The thing – no, the person – she had brought into the world, before leaving her behind.

"Kimberly Anne," she said.

"It's okay," said the synthodrone. "I think this is the best way to-"

Shego cut the synthodrone off, pulling her close and giving her a kiss on the lips. She knew it didn't make up for what she had done. She had gone against her principles, letting blind lust and selfishness rule her. She had hated the idea of Drakken cloning her, but seeing that synthodrone copy of herself brought it all home. She never should have created a synthodrone Kim Possible.

"I'm sorry," she said, finally releasing Kimberly Anne from her kiss. "I'm sorry for everything I did to you. I know you didn't ask for any of this. I wish there was some way to give you what you wanted."

"You don't have to be sorry," said the synthodrone. She smiled as she looked between Kim and Shego, like she was trying to figure them out. "I think humans make a lot of mistakes."

Kim laughed, nodding in agreement.

"I may not be human, but I know I have, too."

The cavern began to rumble more loudly. Shego felt sweat running down her body. The place was starting to feel like a sauna – and not the kind she liked at the resorts she visited on vacation, either.

"Both of you go now," said Kimberly Anne. "This is what I want. And Kim – tell Ron Stoppable I said goodbye."

"I will."

Kim nodded, and Shego gave Kimberly Anne one last look before the two of them rushed away, trying to stay away from the part of the rift from which the control tower rose, as the heat seemed to be the most unbearable near the structure itself. The stairway was on the other side of the cavern, over the rift.

"Jack Hench and Dr. Director," said Kim.

Shego had almost forgotten the two unconscious prisoners. She grabbed both of them, still shackled in their hand and foot braces, levitating a foot off the ground as the floated with vacant expressions. She and Kim each took one with them. They reached the rift; the walkway had broken away, but Kim pulled out her grappling gun she had gotten from Kimberly Anne and fired it over to the other side. She grabbed Shego by the waist with her free arm. Fortunately, the levitating foot restraints on Jack Hench and Dr. Director seemed to ease their burden, and the four of them flew through the air, running as soon as their feet hit the ground.

Hopefully, the stairway would lead to some kind of transportation on the roof which Drakken hadn't already taken – if not, they could still be in trouble. Especially if Kimberly Anne failed to shut off that laser.

XX

Kimberly Anne watched them go.

It was the last time she would see Shego. And yet, somehow, she did not feel nearly as sad as she had expected. She was starting to understand feelings and emotions. Why humans wanted them, why humans even experienced them. Maybe they weren't so bad, when you could learn to accept them. She had been happiest when she was with Shego, blissfully intertwined in her bed; since then, she had been lost. Confused, sad, although she had enjoyed going on missions with Ron Stoppable. She would miss him, too.

Ron and Wade had used her for missions, but she had been perfectly willing, and it wasn't coercive. Global Justice had tried to use her in a very different way, although they had failed. Her creator had tried to use her, too. Even before he lied to her about getting Shego back so she would help him with his evil plans, Cyrus Bortel had created her with restrictions, commands, a stiff structure of existence that shackled her into being a certain way. But she had overcome all of that. She had sloughed off the skin of slavery, transforming herself, growing into something greater. She was her own synthodrone now.

And because of that, she understood her love for Shego, more than she ever had before.

She understood her purpose. Her feelings had been hardwired when she was first created – maybe they were not even feelings, really, but just a command to serve Shego and do what she wanted. But the woman was all Kimberly Anne knew for much of her short life. Spending all that time with Shego, and then going into exile, had planted new feelings into her, real ones. It wasn't Bortel's programming anymore – it was just her. She loved Shego.

_Temperature reaching critical levels_, spoke an automated voice.

Kimberly Anne had taken a quick look at the computer system to Drakken's lair earlier, and she had seen where the keys to shut off the tower were. She walked into the room where her creator and Drakken had taken Jack Hench to extract his memory. She saw a chair in the middle of the room, on top of which the Memory Recovery helmet was attached to a kind of extending arm, so it could be fastened over a sitting victim. On a nearby table was a little plastic tray with a couple of memory cards – computer memory, but also literal memory, extracted from Jack Hench and Dr. Director.

To her right was a filing cabinet. One of the drawers was conveniently marked 'Super Laser Control Keys.' She opened the drawer and took them out, leaving the room and making her way back to the laser tower, which was now listing drunkenly to the side, stopped only by the width of the ceiling rift. She heard metal creaking – soon, the temperatures would bend and warp the tower's foundations, and it would snap and collapse into the rift in the cavern's floor. She leaped down from the rift, where the walkway had broken off, and caught the edge of the doorway to the little control room about twenty feet below, pulling herself up and inside.

_Danger_, said the voice. _ Uncontrolled vortex creation imminent._

Kimberly Anne felt her synthetic skin begin to lose its cohesiveness as the temperatures rose, heat coming off the metal walls surrounding her in waves, like she was inside of a microwave. She reached the control panel and put the keys into their twin slots, turning them. Hopefully the tower's insulation and wiring hadn't already failed, in which case there would be no way to shut off the tower and prevent the vortex from happening. Her skin began to melt. She looked down, intrigued by the puddles of herself that were forming on the floor. She felt her processes beginning to falter, her senses flickering in and out.

Her sensors told her that she was incredible pain; the pain was useful in fights, when she needed to know where the damage was coming from, but right now, it was interfering. She turned her mind's eye inside itself, searching through subroutines and processes, until she found the programming that sent those blindingly sharp stabs over her skin. She disabled the programming.

The pain was gone. She felt just fine.

Shego had made her choice. But it did not change how Kimberly Anne felt about her. She loved her, more than anything, and because of that, she had made her own choice. Her purpose was clear. Kimberly Anne knew she had been selfish, while she was learning to be more than a synthodrone – she wanted Shego for herself, and she wanted Kim Possible out of the picture. But there was no place for her in that picture. Kim Possible made Shego happy, and the two of them wanted to be together.

Kimberly Anne's purpose – her purpose, her desire, her wish - was to give Shego happiness. And the best way to do that was to let Shego and Kim Possible be together.

To save both of them.

The automated voice spoke something else over the lair's speakers, but between her failing hearing and the tower sinking into the rift with a last shuddering heave, Kimberly Anne could not hear it. As she felt the blistering heat tearing away at her body, bringing her back to the formless goop that she had once been, growing in the gestation vat in Bortel's lair before she was born, everything became simpler. Things were not so confusing, so complex. There was less to think about. But she still felt a vague sensation, saw a blurry image of her green-skinned lover in her mind's eye, happy and together with Kim Possible. And Kimberly Anne knew one thing for sure-

For the first time since she was with Shego, she was truly happy.


	24. Cleanup

**Cleanup**

XX

Daylight was just ahead.

Will Du was surprised at the sight. Not that the main doors were open, as Wade had probably managed to disable them once the power was returned, but that he could see daylight. They must have been trapped in Bortel's lair for a long time – it certainly felt like forever. The mission to rescue Dr. Director, which had started last night, had bled over into the next morning. They were almost out. Team Go was taking up the rear, as the Wegos confused their synthodrone attackers with their multiplying powers.

Will Du looked back at his team. There were only two agents remaining – one of them named Smith, he remembered. Agent Smith always insisted on wearing dark sunglasses, even at night. The other one had only been hired a week or two ago, and he was ashamed to admit that he was blanking on the name. Will felt even more ashamed that he had lost the rest of his fellow agents to the synthodrones. He would miss Agent Ullman. The man never cared much for protocol, but he had still managed to be a good agent.

But their fight wasn't over. They still had to get out of the lair and make it to safety.

"Let's move!" he yelled.

Just as he stepped through the doorway, however, Will Du looked back into the lair at the sound of several strange thumps. Beyond his fellow agents and Team Go, he noticed the synthodrones who had been following them slump to the ground, all at once. His agents paused and lowered their rifles as their targets dropped in a heap. Will and Ron stopped and stared at their fallen attackers.

"Uh, what was that?" asked Ron.

"It looks like Kim's synthodrone copy and your friend Wade have disabled the synthodrones."

"Oh. Well, that was easy."

Will nodded – it _was_ easy. But they weren't in the clear yet. Wade had told them that a laser over in Drakken's new lair was poised to fire on them at any moment. Their synthodrones foes may have just been disabled all at once, but they still had to clear the area around Bortel's lair. He motioned for his agents to follow as he stepped into the morning light.

"Come on, everyone!" yelled Hego. "We have to escape from the death laser about to suck us all into a nightmare of interdimensional nothingness!"

"We know that," said Agent Smith. "And way to underplay the danger."

Hego grumbled a little. "Just trying to be helpful."

The group scrambled away from the front entrance to the lair, but as Will looked out across the small rocky plateau in front of the lair's entrance, he grew more confused by the second. Hadn't the Global Justice hoverjet been parked not far from Bortel's lair? After looking around for a moment, trying to remember if he had been mistaken, he decided there was no way he was remembering it wrong. Bortel had destroyed it. Or maybe stolen it. Either way, their transportation was gone. Now, their best bet was to put as much distance between themselves and the lair as possible.

"Farther," he said. "Keep going!"

The group started picking their way downhill as they reached the edge of the plateau, where the rocky ground began to dip down more steeply. Just as Will passed over a rocky outcropping, he heard one of his agents give a surprised grunt behind him. He turned; the agent was looking up into the air. Will followed his gaze. It was a strange sight to see. Something was coming out of the sky – a laser beam, like a sharp white line cutting through the clouds, tumbling down through the blue and orange-mottled dawn tapestry towards the lair.

"_That's_ not good," said Ron.

Will's gaze lowered to the lair itself – although most of it was camouflaged as part of the mountain, the open front door was still visible from their position. For a moment, no one moved. Will felt himself frozen; he knew they could still gain some more distance if they tried, but he was unable to move, like he was paralyzed with the knowledge that they were about to be engulfed. Engulfed by a Pan-Dimensional Vortex, Wade had said. Something about the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer was like catnip to supervillains.

As the group watched, the lair began to change. It was almost imperceptible at first – Will thought there was a strange ripple, like the sharp edges around the open door were bending inwards a little. Like it was a mouth in the side of the mountain, which had been opening in rage as its prey escaped, but was now beginning to close. The edges bent faster, faster, and in a bizarre sight, they crumpled in on themselves as the lair's door disappeared inside of the mountain like water being sucked down a drain.

The rest of the mountainside, which was covering the bulk of a few upper levels to Bortel's lair, began to warp and fold. There was a rumbling, rushing sound, like waves crashing, that grew louder and louder as the colors and shapes in front of them twisted and turned. Finally, in a last cacaphony of sound, the mountain's tip finished imploding, all its mass hurtling inwards to a central point where the laser beam from the sky was landing. With an almost comical pop, the top of the mountain was gone.

The laser faded, until nothing was left but the dawn sky.

"That was actually pretty cool," said Mego.

Will thought it was a strangely beautiful sight. And yet he would not call it cool. He had lost multiple members of his team in that lair. Dr. Director's rescue had come at a high cost. He had to remind himself they weren't even sure Dr. Director herself was alright. From what Wade had said, it sounded like Bortel was dead, Drakken had fled, and Drakken's secret lair was rapidly coming under their control, but Will needed to confirm what was happening on their end. At least they had escaped. Things could have been worse-

"You'll pay, Ron Stoppable!"

Will, his fellow agents, and Team Go whirled around in surprise.

It was the synthodrone Dr. Director.

It had come out of nowhere, and now, it was holding Ron Stoppable up from the ground, gripping him by both arms with a look of fury in its face. Somehow, it had escaped. Will acted on impulse and raised his phase rifle, delivering a blast point blank into the side of the synthodrone's head. It was enough to distract it, and it dropped Ron to the ground, but the blast didn't seem to incapacitate it at all. It swung out an arm, catching Will in the chest and sending him toppling over the rocky ground.

"You think you can stop _me_, Will Du?"

Will got up painfully.

"How did you escape from the lair?"

"An elevator shaft isn't enough to destroy me. I followed you all out the door, and you didn't even notice."

"What about the other synthodrones?" asked Hego. "They were all disabled!"

"I'm not _like_ the other synthodrones," said Dr. Director. "That synthodrone copy of Kim Possible – she broke into my creator's system and found the killswitch for his regular henchmen models. But I was made with more intelligence, more complexity – I have to mimic the real Dr. Director, after all. I even have her memories. Bortel thought he had hobbled his creations after the seeing how the Kim synthodrone became sentient, but you can't stop that from happening when you make a synthodrone so convincing, so human. You can't make a copy of a human without making it as smart as its model. I found the killswitch inside myself and disabled it yesterday."

The fake Dr. Director laughed dismissively at its enemies.

"I suppose I'll have to neutralize you the regular way," said Will.

"And how is that?"

Now that it asked, Will didn't actually know the answer. It had just seemed like the right thing to say. With only their useless phase rifles, he would have to fall back on his martial arts skills – which were highly advanced, thanks to years of Global Justice training - but if Dr. Director's synthodrone was anything like the the _real_ Dr. Director, he could be in trouble. The two circled each other warily.

"You have no chance, synthodrone," said Hego as he strode forward. "Give up now and-"

"No!"

Will held up a hand to stop Hego.

"What is it, Agent Du?"

"I want to take care of this myself."

Maybe it was his ego talking. Will had to admit that he was worried he was biting off more than he could chew. And yet, somehow it seemed right. He needed to defeat this synthodrone himself. He had been out of the loop, and as loyal as he felt to Dr. Director, he had been feeling stranger and stranger about her actions lately – as if Global Justice was going in a direction he didn't like. Keeping the MRM from Kim Possible, the fact that they had lied to Ron Stoppable when they invited him to the facility and inserted the control programming in Kimberly Anne – and this latest rescue mission, trapped in a hive of synthodrones after Dr. Director had disappeared under suspicious circumstances, after they had worked with Bortel for so long-

He felt like he _needed_ to defeat this synthodrone. Somehow, he knew it would be cathartic.

The synthodrone darted forward, about to try to take him through sheer force of impact, but instead of throwing his useless phase rifle aside, Will swung it in a wide arc that smacked the synthodrone right in the face. Maybe not so useless after all, he thought with a faint smirk.

The synthodrone reeled for a moment, but then came back for another attack. This time, it was ready. His second swing was deflected, and the phase rifle went sailing off into the air, ricocheting off a jagged rock with a loud crunch. He executed a series of karate chops against the synthodrone, and then tried to catch it off guard with a low kick to the shin, but his enemy anticipated his attacks and took most of them as glancing blows, which didn't seem to do much damage.

Will missed one of his chops and felt a sharp stab of pain as the synthodrone punched him in the stomach. He doubled over, the breath forced from his lungs. Just as he righted himself again, the synthodrone elbowed him hard, knocking him back to the ground. He fell at an angle, lying on his stomach and noticing a drop in the rocky cliff edge a few yards beyond him. The synthodrone kicked him, white-hot pain shooting through his back where the foot had dug in. The impact was enough to roll Will away, however, and he turned himself and wriggled aside just as the synthodrone brought a foot down where his face had been. It definitely had more moves than the regular henchmen they had been fighting in Bortel's lair.

"What's the matter, Will Du?" it asked. "Not enough moves? You know, I have your Global Justice dossier in my brain, along with everything else about that organization. You're very by-the-book, aren't you?"

"Some would say that," answered Will.

"According to your files, you don't take a lot of chances. You're very loyal."

Will nodded, taking a step back as the synthodrone looked for an opening. He was beginning to think he had been arrogant in telling Hego and his fellow agents to leave this to him. The thing was strong, and it seemed to be toying with him now.

He had seen it twitching strangely a few times since it appeared after the lair was sucked into the vortex. He couldn't help wondering what was going on in the synthodrone's mind. With Dr. Director's memories, her past, artificially uploaded, coupled with whatever programming Bortel had added – attempts to maintain control over it, maybe, or personality tweaks to make it bend more easily to his will. Maybe it was angry that its creator had been killed. Maybe, like the Kim synthodrone, it was confused. Maybe it felt like something was off, after whatever link it shared with its fellow synthodrones, or the lair itself, had been severed by Kimberly Anne's techno-meddling. Will _hoped_ it was confused. That might be his only chance against it.

"I don't know why you're so loyal," it said. "The things I know about Dr. Director – well, let's just say she only told you as much as you needed to know. You don't know anything about the BOSS, do you?"

"I know Betty is a good woman."

"No, the BOSS. The Board of Secret Shareholders."

Will shook his head.

"She hides it from you. She knows you don't ask questions – that's why you're such a good number two."

Will tried to maintain his composure. Years of practice made it easier, but somehow this stupid synthodrone was finding a way of getting under his skin. "Even if it wasn't GJ protocol, she would have earned my loyalty through competent command," he retorted.

"Competent command?" laughed the synthodrone. "Like almost getting you all killed? And do you know why she got kidnapped in the first place? She visited Cyrus Bortel in order to talk about replacing you. That's right – she was starting to think human beings weren't reliable enough for all the threats GJ had to face. She was thinking about what Bortel could do in terms of synthodrone agents."

Will stared in shock, and he could see Smith and the other agent also frowning at the revelation. The synthodrone could be lying, of course – it could be saying things to mess with his mind, maybe to mess with the minds of his other agents, since it knew it would be fighting the rest of the group if Will failed – and yet something about its claim seemed believable. Dr. Director had disappeared so strangely, so contrary to the usual protocols.

He hated this copy of her, this _thing_, planting seeds of doubt in his mind. For a moment, Will was about to let out an angry yell and charge at it, but he knew it was no use – he knew it was stronger than he was. Could Team Go and his fellow agents take it down together? Maybe. But instead, he took a step back, letting his face slip a little from its stoic concentration, into a frown.

"You're lying," he said.

"It's the truth, Will. You thought you were fighting the bad guys, but you've been working for them all along. You're on the wrong side, Will. You're a slave – no better than a synthodrone. At least I managed to overcome my programming. You accept yours without a second thought."

Will stumbled, as if the truth was physically hurting him, and the synthodrone decided it was done with taunting him. It rushed forward, sprinting over the rocky ground, and leaped into the air, extending its leg in preparation for a kick that looked like it would take Will's head off. If Will's head had been in the right place, anyway. He ducked sharply as the synthodrone went inches over his body, and managed to give it a swift smack in the butt with both hands on the way past. It went tumbling across the ground, tripped up by its own momentum, and then-

It disappeared.

Will got up from the ground and dusted himself off, stepping a little closer to the edge. Ron, Team Go and his fellow agents joined him, looking down. They had been losing ground for a while as the flattened entrance to the lair tapered off into a gradually steeper incline, but here, the cliff face dropped off almost vertically. Will winced as he saw the synthodrone bouncing off rocks, hurtling violently down the slope and raising up clouds of dust and debris until finally, far below, it disappeared from sight, lost in the jagged forest of stone and vegetation that peppered the valley below.

"That looked almost as bad as when I fell off my bike in third grade," said Ron.

Agent Smith looked quizzically at him. "Um, kid, I think that was worse."

The group stepped back from the edge. Will took a look at the empty spot where the lair had been – the lair, and the whole mountain crag in which it had been hidden, were totally gone. There was a crater in its place, almost perfectly spherical, where the vortex had expanded before caving in on itself and disappearing into nothingness. It was a strange sight. But they seemed to be safe, for the moment.

"Hey, dude," said Ron. "Thanks for saving me back there."

Will shook the boy's hand.

"Just returning the favor."

Ron smiled at him, and Will couldn't resist flashing a brief smile of his own before returning to his flat demeanor. He had to admit it – Ron Stoppable had done better than he expected. And those Mystical Monkey Powers seemed to have a lot of promise. He had an uneasy feeling about what the synthodrone had said, about Dr. Director, but he knew it was best not to think about that too much. Right now, they had to get to Drakken's lair and make sure Dr. Director, Kim Possible, and the others were safe. Except for the small issue of their missing hoverjet.

And after _that_ fight? Will really didn't feel like walking.

Hego clapped his hands together after growing tired of looking at the smoking crater where Cyrus Bortel's lair had been. "Looks like it's time to had back to the Go Jet," he said. "We can give Wade Load a call and find out what's going on with Kim Possible and our little sister!"

"How much room do you have in that jet?" asked Will.

"Um, not that much, unfortunately. It's really just designed for Team Go. Maybe if some people sat on other people's laps and we did it two to a seat-"

Fortunately, Will and the remaining two members of his team were about to be spared from an embarrassing transportation situation. A low, rumbling whine thrummed through the air, coming rapidly closer, and Will Du looked up to see a Global Justice hoverjet rising over a rocky outcropping as it approached them. It looked like Haytham had sent them some reinforcements, after all. Late was better than never.

XX

Trying to run over steep, rocky terrain with an unconscious body slumped over your shoulder was difficult – even with Kim's cheerleading practice and years of running around in the name of freak fighting. She could tell Shego was tired, too. They had put a lot of distance between themselves and the lair's roof after failing to find any transportation parked nearby – Kim had spied a Global Justice hoverjet about half a mile away, however, almost completely concealed in a rocky little nook along the mountain ridge where Drakken's lair was located. Shego said was probably stolen by Bortel to escape from his own lair and parked a fair distance away from Drakken's place to avoid catching anyone's immediate attention.

But after fighting supervillains for as long as she did, though, not much escaped Kim's attention.

They reached the hoverjet, short of breath, and unceremoniously dumped Dr. Director and Jack Hench to the ground as they began to look for a way in. Kim knew there was an extending ramp of some kind, but she couldn't remember how Will Du had done it the last time she had gone on a mission with him. Something they had done with Duff Killigan, if she was remembering right.

"Come on," said Shego. "How the hell does this thing open?"

"Don't ask me."

"You think they're okay over at Bortel's lair?"

"I hope so."

It was just a question of whether they had gotten out in time, but a laser _had_ gone off. Kim didn't want to think about what had happened if Ron hadn't gotten out in time, and she knew Shego – even if she denied it – had to be worrying about her brothers.

And she didn't know if she and Shego were out of danger, either. The mountainside had been rumbling ominously when they escaped Drakken's cavern lair and clambered out onto the roof, but Kim realized it had stopped a minute or two ago. She stood still for a moment, paying closer attention to the ground beneath her feet. She turned in the direction of Drakken's lair. It was completely concealed inside a bulge in the ridge – not even the roof hatch could be seen.

But there was no vortex. Not yet, anyway. That was a good sign.

"You think she did it?" asked Shego.

Kim hoped so. But it was a bittersweet thought – whether Kimberly Anne succeeded or failed, she knew there was no chance the synthodrone could have survived the temperature levels coming from the chasm inside the cavern. Wade had said so. As much as Kim had been unsettled by Shego's love bot – the way it was being used as a surrogate, the way it looked exactly like her, the way it had tried to choke her to death near the hospital – it turned out it wasn't really bad in the end.

Just very confused, Kim supposed. Which was something she could relate to.

The ground was still, but a strange new rumbling began to grow in volume. There was a slight metallic rattling sound as the GJ hoverjet vibrated, as if something nearby was affecting it – and then, with a rush of air, Kim looked up to see yet another hoverjet looming over them as it swept over the ridge. It jerked abruptly in the air and turned back just as it was about to pass them, lowering itself gradually until it landed on a flat patch between them and Drakken's lair. Whoever was piloting it must have seen them as it passed over.

Kim and Shego approached the new hoverjet as a boarding ramp extended down the side. The two of them were walking, but Kim picked up her speed as she saw a sandy-haired boy coming out first.

"Ron!" she yelled.

"KP!"

Will Du – along with a group of four or five agents – got out behind him, and the Go Jet had just appeared over a ridge, above to land beside the two GJ hoverjets, but Kim wasn't paying attention to any of that. She and Ron rushed towards each other and ended up smacking into a slightly painful embrace. Her eyes began to water as she hugged him. Ron was safe. He had gotten out okay. The danger he had been facing hadn't quite sunk in until now – of course, she and Ron had gone on many missions in the past, but it wasn't often that she was separated from him only to know some kind of death laser had just come shooting down on his location.

"Nice to see you too, KP."

Kim sniffed and released him. "Drakken had this super laser that overheated and almost made a pan-dimensional vortex, but we got out in time."

"Yeah, we had Wade giving us updates – he said it looked like the laser thingie got shut down."

Shego arrived more slowly, meeting her brothers with a brief nod, although they still insisted on gathering around her and almost crushing her in a collective bear hug. Kim smirked; it was obvious Shego didn't want to come off like she cared that much, but she _did_ care. Shego couldn't hide everything, even if she tried.

"Nice to see you're okay, Stoppable," she said.

Ron nodded awkwardly. "Yeah, you too."

Will Du and his fellow agents arrived with the rest of the group. "Hello," said Will. "Glad to see that everyone is alright. Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, Team Go – you all can take the Go Jet and leave whenever you want. Global Justice will take care of the cleanup. It looks like Drakken is long gone, and Wade just gave me an update in the jet – the temperatures in his lair have gone down enough to enter."

Kim watched suspiciously as Will ran off in the direction of the hidden lair with his team. _Cleanup_, he had said. She knew the MRM was down there – from the way they had been keeping it from her, she knew that was probably what they wanted to get their hands on. She wondered if they would be able to salvage Dr. Director and Jack Hench's memories. If the heat from the malfunctioning laser tower had permeated through enough of the lair that it got to the MRM and destroyed it, that could make both of them permanent vegetables. Neither of them were really good guys - but then, neither of them deserved that kind of fate, either. The thought unsettled Kim.

"So wait," said Ron. "how did you guys manage to escape, anyway? Wade got a little distracted while we were coming over here in the hoverjet - where's Kimberly Anne?"

Kim and Shego exchanged looks.

"She saved us," said Shego.

Although she didn't spell out how, Shego's answer told Ron enough. His face fell, and as Team Go joined them, they also seemed to catch the somber mood.

"She said goodbye to you before we left," said Kim.

Ron nodded slowly. She felt bad for her friend – he had been the only one, now that she thought of it, who had always held on to the belief that Kimberly Anne would be on their side in the end.

"Let's go home," said Hego.

They made their way to the Go Jet, which had landed a little farther away from the two GJ hoverjets. After looking back one last time at the mountain pass where Drakken's lair was tucked away, Kim turned back and climbed into the jet. She joined Ron in the back along with Mego and the Wegos, while Shego took a front along with Hego, who was piloting the jet. Kim had expected Shego to complain about her older brother piloting – it seemed like something she would do – but it looked like she wasn't in the mood to say much.

A cloud of silence descended over the group as the jet rose, taking off into the brightening dawn sky. Kim squinted as the sun flared up to her right, bathing the mountains in streaks of orange. She knew that she and Shego and Ron, at least, were thinking about Kimberly Anne. Ron had gotten along with her when the two were going on missions together, and Shego, of course, had an obvious history with the synthodrone. They were both probably very affected by her loss.

Kim's history with the synthodrone was a lot more spotty, but she couldn't deny what had happened in the end. Kimberly Anne had come through. Ultimately, she had saved them all – disabling Cyrus Bortel's synthodrones, re-opening his death trap of a lair, and finally shutting down the laser tower before it burned Kim and Shego alive, or caught them in an inescapable vortex.

Now that Kim thought about it, Kimberly Anne had done much more than that. If it wasn't for the synthodrone, she wouldn't have discovered Shego's true feelings. It was Kimberly Anne who had started all the changes in her life – changes which had been almost too much to bear at times, but now, Kim was finally feeling like there was a light at the end of the tunnel. She was gaining a little balance. Shego and Ron were both there with her, safe and sound. It wasn't fair that Kimberly Anne had never gotten the chance to find herself, to work things out the way Kim had.

Or maybe she _had_ found herself.. Kim would never know.

XX

A gauntlet of tests, experiments, medication, and questions had left Betty feeling tired. Or maybe it was the days she had spent isolated in some prison cell in Cyrus Bortel's laboratory. Either way, she was just about ready for a good rest, if it wasn't for the fact that she still had things to take care of. And Dr. Haytham didn't appear to be finished, either. He pored over some notes as Betty sat in a chair in the GJ laboratory, the Memory Recovery Machine placed on a nearby table. Apparently, he still had some kind of test. He came up to her and set his clipboard and notes aside as he peered at his patient. _ This had better be important_, Betty thought. She was getting impatient.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

Haytham held up three fingers. Betty blinked slowly.

"Do you _really_ need to know that?"

"Haha, no, I was just kidding," said Haytham. "Although, if you really don't know, that could be a bad-"

"Three, Haytham."

"That's correct."

"Am I done now?"

Haytham looked like he wanted to keep Betty for further observation, but had no good excuses to do so.

"Yes," he said. "Just be sure to get some rest. And tell me if you can't remember something."

"Will do."

"Yes, Dr. Director?"

"Not you, Will."

Agent Du stood nearby in the laboratory – she got out of her chair and went through the lab room doors, Du following close behind her. During her post-recovery testing, he had been filling her in on what she had missed in the time she was kidnapped by Cyrus Bortel. Haytham had been successful in restoring Betty's memories using the modified helmet they had retrieved from Drakken's ruined lair, and there didn't seem to be any major side effects. Betty was glad she wasn't a vegetable, but she didn't think they needed to worry _this_ much. She felt perfectly fine, other than being perturbed by how behind she was on all the intel.

"We tried to get Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable to come in for a debriefing," said Du, "but they both hung up."

Betty wasn't surprised. From the sound of it, there was no chance of getting Kim Possible back as an ally in their endeavors. It was too bad, not just because she had been a useful tool in Global Justice's arsenal, but because what Kim didn't seem to realize was that they had the same goals, in the end. Betty wanted to defeat evil and protect people just like Kim did – but the girl was too young to understand that idealism only led to failure. You had to compromise if you wanted to get things done. And sometimes, if you wanted to beat the bad guys, you had to play a little dirty.

Kim reminded her of herself at a young age. Before she had understood how the world truly worked, before she had lost the eye – although, admittedly, that had taught her a lesson in the dangers of fork-tossing more than anything else. Before that obnoxious brother of hers started his counter-organization as some childish attempt at sibling rivalry – which Betty had no time for, of course.

Maybe Kim was still too young, too unreliable. Or maybe Global Justice's experiments had ultimately failed – by leaving her to live a normal life, by keeping themselves hidden from her until a few years ago, maybe it was too difficult to reel her back in and help her fall in line with their methods. They had wanted to see how their experimentation would play out with a girl who lived a normal life, but her white-bread suburban family, and friends like Ron Stoppable, had all had too much of an influence on her.

At least she hadn't gotten her hands on the MRM.

"Should we try getting in touch with Shego?" asked Du.

Betty laughed. "No. There's no point. We have even less chance with her than we do with Kim Possible. Even if she's been working with Team Go, and even if Kim's covert mission succeeded in separating her from Drakken, there's no way she's going to join us now. She's linked too closely to Kim - and if we've lost Kim's trust, we won't be gaining Shego's."

"Can I ask you a question?"

Betty looked at her second-in-command, sensing something hesitant in his voice. As if he was about to ask something he didn't quite _want_ to ask. She got the feeling it might be a question she didn't want to answer. Sure enough, after nodding in assent, she turned out to be right.

"How did you end up getting kidnapped, anyway? You don't usually go anywhere without updating me."

Betty paused only for a second.

"I had to attend to some business."

Somehow, her answer seemed to make Du even bolder. "The reason I ask," he said, "is because I was fighting the synthodrone copy of you once we escaped from Cyrus Bortel's lair, and it said some strange things. It claimed that it had access to all of your memories, and that you had been visiting Bortel to purchase some kind of synthodrone replacements for the agents here."

Betty laughed. "Would I do that, Will?"

Her agent did not give her an answer.

"Look," she said, "You're talking about something that one of Bortel's synthodrone henchmen said. Maybe it looked like me, maybe it even had my memories, but that doesn't mean it was telling you the truth. You can't trust anything it said – it was trying to get under your skin and defeat you more easily. Now, I'm sorry to cut our conversation short, but I have some more business I must attend to."

The two of them reached the elevators. Betty stepped inside, and Will stood in the hallway for a moment, watching her before the doors slid shut. She might have to work on him a little more – he seemed suspicious. But before she could deal with that problem, she had to deal with another problem. During a break in her testing with Dr. Haytham, she had gone to her office and uploaded a basic overview of the last few days to the Board of Secret Shareholders over a secure line. Particularly what had happened during her imprisonment in Bortel's lair, according to Agent Du's briefing. Almost immediately, the Board had requested a personal meeting in the board room. They had probably been waiting for an update, and they didn't like to be kept waiting.

She couldn't help being curious about her upcoming meeting with the BOSS, actually. The MRM had been successful in restoring her own memory, and they had done Jack Hench a favor and restored his memory as well. But not before keeping a copy of his memory data for their own purposes. Hopefully, Jack Hench's memories would provide some interesting information on Hench Co – but she already knew something more interesting than that.

Betty hadn't gone over Hench's memory data in detail, since she had only just regained her own, but Haytham had offered her a quick glance of some interesting tidbits they had already seen while perusing the data in his laboratory. As it turned out, she had been imprisoned in the same lair as a member of the Board of Secret Shareholders, albeit in a separate room. Jack Hench had been hiding things. Not only that, but Hench himself knew the identity of another Shareholder – Bill Vito, the mayor of Go City. That meant two of Betty's bosses were now revealed to her.

The elevator reached the conference room, carved deep beneath the surface of Middleton and the rest of the Global Justice facility. The doors opened, and Betty crossed the distance to the podium, illuminated by a single overhead light while the rest of the room lay shrouded in darkness. She stepped up to the podium and waited patiently. After a few moments, the light brightened by an almost imperceptible amount, and the semicircular conference table ahead of her began to take form, along with the gloomy figures of the Shareholders.

_Which one is Jack Hench? _she wondered. _And Bill Vito?_

The Head Shareholder was always seated directly across from her, usually handling the bulk of the meeting's content. For some reason, she got the feeling that neither Hench nor Vito could be the one in charge of the whole operation. Maybe they were both powerful, both had connections, but somehow they just seemed to lack the gravitas. They weren't quite mastermind material.

"It's good to see you're back to normal," said the Head Shareholder. The others nodded in agreement.

"Thank you, sir."

"Unfortunately, we've been very concerned about your performance lately. We received your briefing on the events subsequent to your capture, but we still don't understand why you were captured. When did Cyrus Bortel get an opportunity to catch you unaware?"

Betty coughed. She probably should have come up with some kind of alibi, but there wasn't any time now. Still, she didn't want to share _everything_ with the Board. "I visited his lair, actually," she said. "I had some suspicions about his activities, and I wanted to check the status of his synthodrone operation – I should have brought reinforcements. It was my mistake."

"You've been making a lot of mistakes lately."

The comment hung in the air as Betty waited silently for the Head Shareholder to continue.

"And what about the status of your operation with Kim Possible?"

"I don't think she will have a working relationship with us in the future," said Betty.

The Head Shareholder tapped a finger on the conference table.

"You mean the operation failed."

Betty felt a heated flush go over her cheeks. Maybe she was still recovering from her ordeal, but she definitely felt a little put upon. The Board was giving her a grilling, in its own understated but menacing way. "We _did_ separate Shego from Drakken," said Betty. "And we managed to keep Kim Possible from accessing the MRM and bringing back any compromising memories."

Betty knew she was being defensive – but then, she had to admit that things hadn't gone quite as well as she had hoped lately. Before the Had Shareholder could respond, another Shareholder leaned forward over the conference table with a look of curiosity - maybe more of a curious demeanor, since Betty couldn't actually tell who the man was. "What's the status of the synthodrone Kim Possible?" he asked.

She wondered if it was the same man who had, according to Agent Du's confused account, given GJ a call through a private line and passed on the operational code to gain control of the syntho-Kim. It would fit his interest in the synthodrone. "Kimberly Anne is gone," she said. "She was destroyed when the laser tower in Drakken's new lair collapsed."

"There's no way to salvage her? We might need her if the real Kim Possible proves to be too much trouble."

Once again, Betty decided they didn't need to know the whole truth. Especially not after the tone they had been taking – if the Board wasn't on her side, she needed to keep whatever cards she could get until she had an opportunity to play them to her greatest advantage.

"No," she said. "She was completely destroyed."

That wasn't _exactly_ a lie, of course. Kimberly Anne had been essentially vaporized in the destruction of Drakken's superweapon – or melted, or whatever happened to the syntho-goo which made up a synthodrone. But there happened to be a small part of Kimberly Anne still in existence. Right there in Dr. Haytham's laboratory, in fact. Not only had they taken a tissue sample when she and Ron had visited GJ's Middleton branch while they were teaming up, but they had a new one, as well.

During Will Du's sweep of Drakken's lair, after the tower had collapsed, Haytham was able to collect another small sample from the half-melted control room, twisted and lodged in a narrow part of the rift where it had fallen, hundreds of feet below the main cavern. Kimberly Anne's remains. It had been difficult to retrieve, but it represented an evolution in her syntho-cells from the old sample. Haytham had been excited about the possibilities for comparing the two. While she didn't understand half his technobabble, it did sound promising.

Dr. Haytham seemed to think that the synthodrone's programming, the ones and zeros that made up the essential essence of its personality, were stored on a cellular level, present in any sample of syntho-goo from the drone, and united to make a single form. Betty could imagine tantalizing possibilities in terms of body manipulation, shape changing, who knew what else – things neither Drakken nor Bortel had discovered yet, but Haytham had mentioned them as possibilities. Betty had even asked, just out of interest, if they could bring Kimberly Anne back. Haytham had sounded skeptical.

But he _did_ say anything was possible.

XX

"I got some Pop Pop Porter's Food-Style Pork Wafers!"

Assad Sacke stood in the open doorway with an armload of snacks and soda. There had been a couple of vending machines in the hallway outside of their motel room, and Drakken had sent him out to get something for them to eat. He remembered another motel room, when he was on the run with Shego, after that fateful day when he had discovered Shego's naughty little synthodrone secret – along with Kim Possible, who had sent the two of them packing from an exploding lair.

That had been a minor setback, but tonight seemed worse. Drakken had been in a morose mood ever since he and Assad had narrowly escaped from his brand new mountain lair that morning. All his work for nothing. His precious Vortex-Inducing Super Laser, gone – from the data he had gotten from a scan in the hovercraft he and Assad had used to escape from the lair, it looked like the thing had self-destructed somehow. Stupid cheap outsourced Hench Co technology.

After all that? Not even pork wafers were going to give him a boost.

Assad gave his boss a reassuring pat on the back. "Cheer up, Doctor Drakken! This could be worse. After my wife left me, I had to live in the car for-"

"Oh, please. No more about your ex-wife!"

"Sorry."

Drakken had been flipping channels on the motel room's television, but nothing was on. There weren't many channels, anyway. Mostly adult programming, for some reason, which did not interest Drakken. He supposed he was a little spoiled by getting free access to every hacked channel one could think of thanks to being a supervillain. That, and a motel called _Mountain Magic_ probably wasn't going to come equipped with all the latest amenities.

Now that Drakken thought about it, this bed he was on was disturbingly heart-shaped...

"So what's our next plan?" asked Assad.

"I have no plans," said Drakken, pouting. "They're always dashed, anyway."

Assad climbed into bed with him, wriggling under the covers and sharing the bag of pork wafers that Drakken had opened – he was too lazy to object, and the two of them settled in as the watched some kind of game show with the volume turned low. "I guess life is an unending series of punishments from which there is no escape," said Assad. "But hey, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right?"

The man didn't sound convinced by his own maxim. Drakken wasn't convinced, either. "Why would you want lemonade? What about Cocoa Moo?"

Assad shrugged. "Either way."

_Some Cocoa Moo would be nice right about now_, he thought.

His Cocoa Moo-making machine, like everything else in the new lair, was probably confiscated by Global Justice by now. He would have to lay low for a while, seeing as the organization was still out to get him – whether they'd still be interested in pursuing Shego now that she had switched to the other team, in more ways than one, he did not know. Maybe Shego had been right about his fixation on lasers. He _had_ been in a rut lately, ever since his near-total victory with the L'il Diablos. And now, he had barely anything besides the clothes on his back and the hovercraft he and Assad had used to escape.

Shego had never given him the respect he deserved, even though, while he was working with her, he had always been willing to pass it off as part of her snarky yet lovable personality. He had considered the two of them to be family, after all. And yet she had turned on him. Rejected him for that red-haired home wrecker, and returned to her real family, as if they treated her as nicely as Drakken did. Did Team Go give her a generous two weeks a year in vacation leave, not counting the times she left anyway and threatened to hit him with a burst of plasma if he objected? He didn't _think_ so.

Drakken felt like he got no respect lately. Maybe Assad was right: he had been down on his luck, but if he wanted things to change, sooner or later he would have to step up and take things to the next level. Make some lemonade.

Shego and his teen foes were in cahoots now, but he could remember someone who _did_ give him respect, once. She had worshiped him, in fact. Warmonga. Now _that_ had been a woman who respected genius, even if she was a little hung up on the blue skin thing. It was just too bad she had left earth after deciding Drakken wasn't the Great Blue. Now _there_ had been a missed opportunity. That power, that enticing alien technology - and she was even green-skinned like Shego, but more respectful. But she was probably back in her homeworld of Lorwardia by now. He had no idea how to contact her.

Then again, with enough time, Drakken could figure out how to do a lot of things.

XX

* * *

_**Notes** - There is one chapter to go. It'll probably be up on Friday._


	25. First Date

**First Date**

XX

It was time to make a move.

That was what Shego had decided almost a week after Cyrus Bortel's synthodrone-themed world domination attempt had failed, getting him a grappling hook through the head in the process. She had put a little distance between herself and Kim Possible - maybe because she was afraid of coming on too strong after trying to rescue her. But by now, she hoped Kim had taken some time to think about things. Shego was turning a new leaf. Drakken was gone, and at least for the moment, she was living with her brothers in Go Tower for lack of any other lodgings.

And so, yesterday, she had given the teen hero a call.

She was on her way to Kim's house now. The afternoon breeze ran its invisible fingers through her jet black hair, sending it sailing out behind her in waves as she piloted the hovercraft over suburban Middleton. It was nice to get away from the constant noise her brothers seemed to make in Go Tower. Get some air. Maybe get a little of something else later, if she got lucky. She had passed downtown earlier, and now she was keeping an eye out for Kim's increasingly familiar house, trying not to get nervous.

Nervous. Shego found it amusing – after fighting supervillains with Team Go, after quitting the team to join supervillainy, after all the things she had done in her life – she was nervous. Going to Kim's house, picking her up, and going out on a normal date was making her tense. One big reason for her feelings was Kim's parents. She wasn't sure how either of them would react, but during Kim's visits to Drakken's lair, she had mentioned her parents not being particularly happy about her relationship. Hopefully they'd have a different perspective now. It was funny, worrying about what someone's parents would think. Just like she was back in high school.

But it was more than just Kim's parents. It was _Kim_. Shego knew this was a new beginning – they had gotten off on the wrong foot, both trying to manipulate each other, both caught up in Bortel's scheming and their relationships with other people. Now, there was nothing in the way. Both of them were single and ready to mingle, there were no ongoing kidnappings, no synthodrone attacks, and hopefully they'd be able to meet each other halfway.

Even Ron seemed to be warming up to her after the two of them had joined forces to rescue Kim. And no sooner did the boy come to mind than Shego glanced down over the side of the hovercraft, keeping an eye out for Kim's house, and noticed a blue scooter backing out of a driveway. Ron's driveway, if she wasn't mistaken. She knew Stoppable drove a scooter, and she knew he and Kim lived very near each other. Shego lowered the hovercraft right into the middle of the road, blocking Ron off just as he was about to set out from his driveway.

"Hey, what gives?"

Shego smirked. "You should think about trading that scooter in for a hovercraft."

"That'd be cool, if I could afford one. Where'd you get yours?"

"Drakken made it for me."

Shego stepped onto the side of the hovercraft, which she had parked in the middle of the street, and sat down, her legs dangling over the side. Ron could probably get around it, but he let the scooter idle and took off his helmet. His pet mole rat sat in the basket attached to the front, crossing its arms and twitching its whiskers suspiciously. Both of them seemed to be surprised at her appearance. Ron looked standoffish – she couldn't blame him, seeing as she was blocking his way. But she had decided to catch him before she went to Kim's house. The two of them needed to talk.

"So where are you headed?" she asked.

"Um, I'm just headed over to Monique and Felix's house."

"Those your other friends?"

"Yeah. We're gonna be watching a wrestling match. Steel Toe vs. Pain King."

"Nice. I'm a fan of Steel Toe, personally."

"Really? Me too!"

Ron looked shocked to find he had something in common with her, but his surprise soon switched back into a more guarded expression. "So, uh - I guess you're going out with Kim, huh? You look pretty dressed up."

Shego looked down at herself. She _was_ wearing a dress. The same one she had worn when she and Kim had met for the first date of sorts at Chez Pierre, actually, if she wasn't mistaken. She hoped it wasn't overdoing it, but it seemed like the thing to do on a date. Shego had to admit that she hadn't really gone out on a lot of dates in a while. High school was the last time she had been in the dating scene – then, with college, Team Go, her existential crisis, and working for Drakken, there just wasn't much time for romance.

She had been playing it kind of differently with Kim when they were first getting together, when she had first broken through Kimmie's defenses – sort of like it was all lust, like she wanted Kim physically, but wanted to keep her at arm's length emotionally. So it didn't feel so much like dating, somehow. But now, today, she wanted to do things right. It felt like their first date was coming up.

"Yeah," said Shego. "I thought I'd look nice for our date. You okay with that, by the way? A date, I mean?"

"You and Kim? Why are you asking me?"

That was a good question, Shego thought. She definitely hadn't asked him when she had gone after Kim in the first place. It looked like Ron didn't expect her to care what he thought, which was completely justified, based on how she had treated him in the past.

"Look," she said, "it's not like I need your permission to date her or anything - but still, you two are best friends. I'm not asking you to like it, but I know she listens to you. If you hate me, I doubt it would work out with me and Kim in the end. You guys have known each other since Pre-K, right?"

"Right."

"So that's a connection I can never have with her. I understand if you don't like me after the way I got involved and screwed things up between the two of you, but I guess I'm not used to thinking about other people that much. Anyway – whatever you think of me, I'm hoping you at least won't be my enemy. I might be able to knock you around in a fight, but when it comes to Kim, I don't think I can beat you."

Ron sat in his scooter, which gave a little putter from time to time, as he considered what she had said.

"I want whatever makes Kim happy."

Shego knew that was as good an answer as she could hope for.

"Are you going to make her happy?" he continued.

"Yeah," she said. "I think I can."

That seemed to be enough for Ron. He shrugged his shoulders and began to maneuver the scooter out of the hovercraft's way. "Well, then, that's all that matters."

Ron passed around the hovercraft, his scooter moving at an incredibly slow pace. Shego had been joking, but the boy definitely needed a hovercraft, or at least something that could go faster than most people did at a leisurely walking pace. He was about to pass by when she called out to him:

"Hey, hold up a second."

Ron looked back after putting his helmet on.

"Yeah?"

"I heard you were kicking some ass at Cyrus Bortel's lair with your Mystical Monkey Powers."

"Who told you that?"

"Kim. I guess she heard it from Wade or something."

Ron blushed just a little bit. "I guess it seemed like I was controlling it more than I usually did. Maybe it comes up more easily in tense situations. I should go to Yamanouchi sometime and learn to get the hang of it better."

"Or you could just fight me."

"Huh?"

Shego laughed. "I'd be interested in seeing how the Mystical Monkey Power works out in a fight, if you actually get a few moves. And practicing with me is cheaper than flying to Japan all the time."

Ron still seemed guarded, like he thought she was playing a trick on him, but eventually he nodded slowly. "Um, sure," he said. "That could be badical, if you don't beat me up or anything."

"I'd go easy. For a while."

"Well, we can try it sometime. Have fun with Kim."

"Thanks."

The scooter puttered away as Shego watched. She wouldn't have thought about having a conversation with Stoppable in a million years, back when she was still working with Drakken – but it was true that the boy was Kimmie's best friend, which probably wouldn't change, even if they had experienced a rocky breakup. She didn't know if _she'd_ ever be friends with him, but she wanted to have a civil relationship with him if anything was going to happen with Kim.

Maybe she had dismissed him too easily, anyway. She was interested in seeing that monkey power in action. And he had ended up getting past what happened between him and Kim, whereas Drakken had been unable to deal with Shego leaving him – between the two of them, apparently Ron was the one who could get over things and grow up. And now that Drakken was out of her life, it might be nice having another dork around for snarking purposes.

Shego decided leaving the hovercraft in the middle of the road and walking the short distance to Kim's house might get some complaints from the neighbors. Not that she cared, but it wouldn't be making a great impression on Kim's parents. She lifted off and piloted the hovercraft a short distance down the road until she reached Kim's house, and was just in the process of landing in the driveway when she noticed Kim's father working inside the open garage. Kim's two twin brothers were in there, too. They came rushing out when she landed, gaping at her ride.

"Whoa," said Jim. "That thing's awesome!"

Tim ran his hand over the sleek metal before it had even finished powering down. "Do you know if it uses a V3 Propulsion Engine?"

"Kid, I just know how to drive the thing."

"Where'd you get it from?"

"It's one of Drakken's inventions."

"Can he make one for us?"

"I don't think so. I don't work with him anymore."

"Can we drive it?"

"I don't think so, boys!"

James Possible came out from the garage, nodding curtly at Shego. She got out of the hovercraft, making sure to keep the keys away from the kids; inside the garage, as far as she could see, Kim's brothers and their father had been working on a birdhouse, set up on a little workbench. Surprisingly non-technological for the Possibles, even from what she remembered during her brief stay as Miss Go. Of course, she was sure it had some kind of completely unnecessary rocket engine attached to it or something.

"You're here to see Kim?"

"That's right. Do you know where she is?"

"Inside, getting ready."

"Um, thanks."

Shego was about to go inside when James stopped her for a moment.

"Hold on," he said. "I just wanted to ask – you're no longer working with Drew?"

"Nah. We see things a little differently now. That, and he made a synthodrone clone that tried to kill me."

James chuckled. "Isn't that kind of the pot calling the kettle black?"

Shego knew Kim's father was referring to the whole mess with Kimberly Anne. Seeing Drakken's replacement for her definitely had a way of putting things in perspective. "Uh, yeah," she said, coughing nervously. "Sorry about all that."

James looked stern for a moment, but his expression softened.

"I guess I should thank you for saving my Kimmie-cub."

"No need to thank me. Her synthodrone copy ended up saving both of us, anyway."

The two of them lapsed into an awkward silence. If Shego had to guess, Kim's father looked awkward just due to the fact that they were talking about the sex bot Shego had made to substitute for his daughter. Probably a touchy subject for her dad. But the mere memory of Kimberly Anne was enough to make Shego falter. She still felt guilty when the thought of the synthodrone. She had brought her into the world – Bortel did, anyway, but she had taken her in – and then she had rejected her. And yet, after all that she had done, Kimberly Anne was willing to not just help them, but sacrifice herself for them. The synthodrone had been more selfless than she had ever been.

"In case you were wondering, I'm okay with you dating my daughter if you're going to treat her right, and if you're not working with supervillains any more," said James. "Or robbing banks, or anything like that. I don't want my Kimmie-cub in any more danger than she chooses to put herself in on a regular basis."

Shego was amused by the comment, but she nodded.

"That's all behind me."

"Good, good. But, one other thing?"

"Yeah?"

"I _am_ a rocket scientist, you know. I regularly work on rockets that can fly manned space missions, some of which can go straight into black holes. There's never been a manned mission to a black hole before, for obvious reasons – but you know what? There's a first time for everything."

The two of them stared at each other for a moment until James let out a good-natured laugh and slapped Shego playfully on the back. It wasn't often that anyone could intimidate Shego, and she had to assume James was joking, but still – something about the way he winked was just a little bit unsettling. She wondered if he had used that line before. At least it was a little classier than sitting on the front porch with a shotgun.

"Go on," he said. "Kim's waiting inside."

Shego nodded and went in through the door inside the garage. Kim's twin brothers stayed outside – probably to work with their father in the garage, although Shego hoped they weren't going to run their greasy little hands all over her hovercraft. Hopefully Kim's dad would keep an eye on them.

Inside the house, she met Kim's mother in the kitchen. "Hey, Mrs. Possible," she said. "Nice to see you again."

"Hello, Shego. I hear you and my daughter have a date?"

"Yeah, we do. And her dad already gave me the spiel, so don't worry. Space ship, black hole, all that."

Kim's mother raised an eyebrow.

"She's upstairs."

"Thanks."

Shego left the kitchen and went to the stairway. Just as she was about to take the first step, however, a shadow played against the wall upstairs – she wondered what Kim would be wearing. Maybe a saucy little black number, or something in green that would complement her hair. Her date appeared at the top of the stairs, flashing Shego a million-dollar smile as she caught sight of her. She was wearing... well...

A T-shirt and cargo pants.

Kind of a cute shirt, Shego had to admit, but kind of underwhelming at the same time. It was white, with a pink heart in the middle. Shego began to worry – had she been so nervous about this date that she had misinterpreted the whole thing? Was it even a date? Here she was, dressed up to the nines, and Kim apparently had something else in mind.

"Hey," said Kim as she came down the stairs.

"Hey, yourself. So where are we going, anyway?"

Kim took her by the hand and led her to the front door after waving goodbye to her mother. The two of them stepped outside. Shego was happy to be led along, wherever they might end up. Her date looked at her again, flashing another smile after waving to her father in th driveway and heading off.

"You'll see."

XX

Ron returned to the living room with an armload of snacks. He had just gotten to Felix's house, but he and Rufus had insisted there was no way they could get pumped for a wrestling match on an empty stomach. Monique, who had already gotten there when Ron arrived, had to agree. She grabbed a bag of chips from Ron before he had even settled down on the couch between his two friends.

"You almost missed the beginning," said Felix. "Only a few minutes until it starts."

"Yeah, I got delayed a bit, actually. Shego landed her hovercraft right in the street right in front of me."

Felix and Monique exchanged looks. "Shego?"

"She's going out on a date with KP. That's why she couldn't come."

"Oh," said Monique. "I figured she couldn't come 'cause the girl just hated wrestling."

"That too."

The three of them grew silent, save for the loud crunches coming from Ron, Monique, and Rufus as they dug into their snacks. Still, Ron could tell his friends seemed a little uncomfortable. He didn't know why _they_ would be uncomfortable at hearing about Kim and Shego. "What's up?" he asked.

"So – so Kim and Shego doesn't bother you?"

Ron shrugged. "Yeah, it kinda does. But I'll get over it. I guess Kim could go out with worse people than Shego, at least now that she's toning down the whole evil she-devil thing."

Monique placed a hand on Ron's forehead. "Did you just say Shego wasn't that bad? Ron, are you feelin' okay?"

"I'm fine!"

"I'm just sayin', after all the complaining you've been doing over the-"

"Hey, when have I ever complained?"

Both Monique and Felix stared off in random directions, trying to avoid his gaze.

"Okay, fine – maybe I was a _little_ whiny."

"But you're moving on," said Felix. "That's good. I'm just glad you and Kim can still be friends. And I think Monique was going to choke me to death just to let off steam if there was any more drama between you and Kim."

Monique nodded in agreement. "There's other fish in the sea, anyway!"

Felix shushed them both and pointed excitedly at the television screen, as the wrestling match was about to come on. He hadn't been a big fan of wrestling when they first met him, but between Ron and Monique, they had managed to convert him over time. Felix liked to take a diplomatic position on the issue of Steel Toe vs. Pain King when Ron and Monique got into an argument.

The intro music for the match began to thump through the living room as a Global Wrestling Association logo flashed across the screen. Actions shots of Steel Toe and Pain King alternated as the music swelled, and after a moment, the camera switched to a shot of the arena, surrounded by roaring crowds.

Normally, Ron would have been all eyes on the TV, but something about what Monique's last comment had caught him off guard. More fish in the sea, she had said. Ron didn't know what fishing had to do with girlfriends until he realized it was one of those things he had learned about in English – a metaphor, maybe? But now that he thought about it, it wasn't the comment that had surprised him. It was the way Monique had given him a little wink right after she said it. What in the world did that mean?

Ron decided to just watch the match. Wrestling was simple, but girls? Way too confusing.

XX

Although she tried to keep her eyes on the road, Kim's eyes couldn't help straying towards Shego from time to time. It _had_ to be the dress. Kim was pretty sure it was the same one Shego had worn on their date to Chez Pierre - although to her, this seemed more like a first date than that night. No ulterior motives, no covert missions. Just the two of them, hoping to start things off on the right foot. Because of that, Kim was trying to play it cool, a little more casual, so they could ease into things. Judging by the dress, Shego was trying to be formal and romantic, just like at Chez Pierre. Not that Kim was complaining. That dress was almost as nice as the little black number she had considered wearing.

"Nice car," said Shego. "What's that button do, by the way?"

Kim swatted her hand away from the button. "That's the turbo booster. You don't want to press it."

"Oh, I really do."

"Maybe some other time, when we're on a highway. I don't really want to go crashing through some store in downtown Middleton."

"Alright. Some other time. You basically just promised at least a second date, you know."

Kim rolled her eyes, but couldn't help grinning.

"How'd you get this car, again? Seems like it's almost as customized as the hovercraft – did your dad make it?"

"The tweebs, actually."

"Oh, right. Your brothers. Man, twins can be annoying."

"You're telling me. Don't you have more of a problem with your two older brothers, though?"

Shego nodded. "I guess even if the Wegos annoy me sometimes, I get along with them the most. They don't know how to sit down for five seconds, but other than that, they're pretty likeable. Unlike Mego and Hego. I'm staying with them now, since Drakken's out of the picture. Let me tell you, another week of this and I'm gonna end up throwing them off the tower roof."

"Still, you guys actually managed to work together to try to rescue me."

"Yeah, and look how _that_ worked out."

"Hey, it would have been a lot harder to hold off those synthodrones in Drakken's lair if you weren't there with me. And without Team Go helping them, Global Justice probably would have gotten wiped out while they were stuck in Bortel's lair, unless Ron's monkey powers went into overload. So it was a good thing you guys were working together."

"Maybe."

Kim noticed Shego looking doubtful. She definitely seemed to have a touch and go relationship with her brothers. Kim had already told her that she didn't have to rejoin Team Go in order to win her back, but her brothers seemed to be tied into Shego's attempts at change. Maybe she was pushing it too hard.

"You don't have to live with them, you know," said Kim. "Maybe that's the problem. Everything blew up with your brothers in the past because you couldn't get away from them, and you just need a big break. But now that you've given up the whole supervillain thing, you might be able to get along with them without actually living with them. Even fight bad guys sometimes. You just need space, that's all."

"That means I'd have to get an apartment," said Shego. "Or, I guess I could live with _you_."

Kim laughed. "My parents seem like they're cool with us dating now, but don't push it. I think they'd go nuts if you were sleeping in the house with me. I mean, they would have gone nuts if _Ron_ was doing that. But hey, I'll be going to college after this summer."

"Sometimes I forget how young you are."

"Excuse me, but I'm not _that_ young!"

The Sloth took a last turn as Kim drove it through downtown Middleton – only a five minute drive, really – and they arrived at their destination. She pulled into the parking lot of the Bueno Nacho, where Kim had been planning to take Shego on their date, and got out of the car. Shego joined her with a confused expression. Kim was amused. She definitely got the impression her date had been anticipating something along the lines of Chez Pierre. Just the way she was dressed was enough of a tipoff. Kim wondered if Shego had even eaten at a Bueno Nacho before, but then she remembered they had eaten there together while she was Miss Go.

"I'm starting to think maybe I'm a little overdressed," said Shego.

"That's alright."

The two of them went into the restaurant and approached the counters. "Buenos Dias," said Ned, darting out from behind a deep-fat fryer. "Welcome to Bueno Nacho, how may I – hey!"

Ned took a step back and pointed at Shego.

"I've seen you on the supervillain websites! No international criminals allowed in Bueno Nacho!"

"Take a chill pill, Ned," said Kim. "She's not a bad guy anymore."

Ned eyed Shego cautiously. She snapped playfully at him, causing him to dart back reflexively. "I saw a no shoes, no shirt, no service sign outside," she said. "But nothing about supervillains, current _or_ former. So take my order, punk."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Don't call me ma'am, either."

"Yes, ma – Shego. How may I take your order?"

Shego shrugged and looked at Kim, who ordered first. "I'll have a Naco combo meal."

"Me too."

"Coming right up!"

The two of them both filled their drinks before taking a booth near the back of the restaurant, where they could have a little privacy. Kim sipped at her straw while thinking about Shego's exchange with Ned. "You know," she said, "you might not be working for Drakken anymore, but I wonder if you're still kind of a fugitive."

"From Global Justice, you mean?"

"Yeah. I mean, have they pardoned you or anything?"

Shego shook her head. "Not that I know of. Wouldn't you know that better than me?"

"I'm not working with them anymore. I don't want anything to do with them, really. They've been keeping secrets – I know whose side I'm on, but I'm not so sure I know about _them_ anymore."

"I don't blame you."

Kim nodded. So maybe Shego hadn't turned into a total goody-two-shoes yet. She would technically be dating a fugitive, although she got the feeling Global Justice would probably be less keen on actively pursuing Shego if the woman had given up a life of crime, while Drakken was still a person of interest. Still, she hoped the organization wouldn't be causing any problems for them in the future.

Shego motioned around the store. "Why this place?" she asked. "I'm not complaining, but I guess I was surprised – it doesn't seem like a first date kind of joint."

Kim smiled. She got the impression that Shego wasn't exactly a dating expert. Not that she was, either, but something about the way Shego came off as a little naïve in the romance department struck her as really cute. The woman could do lust, no question about it, but when it came to the day-to-day stuff, the casual interactions between two lovers – she could be awkward. But then, Kim supposed this _was_ a little casual for a date.

"I wanted to go here because it's me," said Kim. "Chez Pierre is great, but it _is_ a fancy place. I thought maybe this time we could just take it easy and be ourselves – last time it was so different, you know? Me and Ron go to this place all the time, so I thought it would be a good place for the two of us to start over. I like this place, so this is a part of me. This heart shirt," she said, pulling at her white T-shirt with the pink heart stamped across the middle, "this is me, too. One of my favorite shirts."

"I get where you're going."

Ned arrived with their Naco combos, setting the plates down on the table and scurrying off, as if he was intimidated by Shego. Kim couldn't be sure, but she seemed to remember Ned mentioning things in the past about some of her missions, like he had looked up info on supervillains online. She wondered if it was possible that the boy had a bit of a crush on Shego. As a hot, green-skinned international criminal, she _did_ seem like the kind of woman to get a bit of a fan base.

"So tell me," said Kim. "You never really gave me any good answers before. Why do you like me so much?"

Shego bit into her Naco before answering, chewing very deliberately.

Kim tried to be patient, but her curiosity got the better of her "When we were going out, it seemed like you were doing things that reminded you of the past – like when we were on that hill in Go City, or when we were under the bleachers that one time. And even if you were joking about me being young, I _am_ pretty young."

"What, compared to me?"

Kim trailed off, mortified that she might have just inadvertently called Shego old.

"No, I didn't mean it like that, I just-"

"I'm just kidding."

"Oh, good" she said, breathing a sigh of relief. "No, I just meant – do I remind you of someone else? Someone from your past? Maybe when _you_ were in high school?"

Shego raised an eyebrow. Kim got the impression her guess was correct.

"No, you don't."

Kim frowned. Maybe not as correct as she thought.

"Well, not exactly. You're close, I guess. There _was_ someone in high school – I went out with boys, mostly, but there was a girl I was kind of experimenting with when I going through that whole confused stage. But you don't really remind me of her. I think it's just – it's that time, you know? It's the past."

Shego toyed with her food thoughtfully for a moment.

"You remind me of myself."

That wasn't quite what Kim had been expecting. Although she and Shego did have similarities, especially now that Shego had changed her career path.

"You remind of myself when I was younger," continued Shego. "It was like, every time you and Stoppable came over to our lair to stop some stupid scheme Drakken was cooking up, every time the two of us ended up fighting, it was like I was looking in the mirror. You were a mirror image of myself from the past. You've got the snarky attitude, the self-confidence, but you're not apathetic. You still have that idealism about the world. You think you can change everything, you're so sure of what's right and wrong. You're pretty close to the way I used to be when I was with Team Go, before things went bad. I guess you reminded me of a part of myself that I left behind, that I wanted to reject. Something that I missed, even though I chose to give it up. You're like the girl that I could have been."

Kim toyed with her food, much more curious about Shego than ever.

"So you weren't happy with Drakken?"

"I was for a while. The thing is, Kimmie, I had fun doing the whole supervillain thing. But it got old. Drakken kept failing, and even if he succeeded, I couldn't help wondering what would be the point. I liked fighting you more than anything else, and I liked doing what I wanted and not having to live by anybody else's rules – but I guess working with a supervillain is kind of an extreme way of doing that.

"So the more I kept doing it, the more I couldn't help thinking about the past. It wasn't like I wanted to get back together with Team Go – it was just that I missed the person I was. I wondered if I had gone too far in the opposite direction, if I had let myself get too jaded and cynical and ended up caught in another trap, just as bad as the one I had been in when I was with my brothers. And you were like a way out. You reminded me of what I could have had, who I could have been."

Shego took a bite of her Naco, looking out the window, deep in thought.

"That, and I totally wanted to get it on with you."

Kim laughed. Shego's comment reminded her of Kimberly Anne. When she had first encountered the synthodrone, she didn't seem to resemble Kim that much in terms of personality. "So did that synthodrone actually remind you of me?" she asked "I mean, with the whole peppy thing?"

"Sort of," said Shego. "I guess I had an unrealistic image of you. I was idealizing you. And maybe I had a bit of a fetish for the whole good girl thing. I think we both know you can be a pretty bad girl, though."

"Pfft. Only when I'm being influenced by you."

The two of them finished their meals, getting up and returning their trays. Kim said goodbye to Ned before the two of them left the restaurant; it was a nice day, and she decided it would be nice to go for a little walk.

"You know," said Shego, "I'm not sure what you're expecting, but I don't know if I can be exactly what you want. I mean, I've been trying with Team Go, with quitting as Drakken's partner, but I don't know if I'm ever gonna be into doing missions, saving little old ladies, that kind of thing."

"You don't have to do any of that," said Kim. "I just want you to be yourself."

Shego considered the request.

"I think I can do that."

"And you need to accept me for who I am, too. Maybe I remind you of yourself in the past, or maybe you get excited about the whole good girl thing, whatever that is, but I'm Kim Possible. And I'll admit I had the same problem – I think part of why I was attracted to you was the whole bad girl thing, the idea that maybe I hadn't examined my life enough, that I was breaking some rules. Even the fact that someone like you would be interested in me. But if we're gonna make this work, we need to appreciate each other for who we are, instead of what we want each other to be."

"You're right," said Shego. "So tell me about yourself. Do you like long walks on the beach?"

Kim laughed. "Um, sure. But I have another question for _you_, actually."

"Shoot."

Kim hadn't even thought about it until just now, but it was something Shego hadn't told her in all the time they had spent together while she was still working for Drakken. Part of the real Shego that had been hiding away, although Kim was starting to see her peeking through. Unlike her previous question, Kim knew this one would be easier to answer.

"What's your real name?"

Shego hesitated for a moment, and then laughed.

"I haven't told you that, have I?"

"Nope."

"It's Susan."

"Susan Go?"

"Yeah."

The two of them grew quiet as they took a shortcut through an alley, reaching a park that Kim liked to visit sometimes. It was a nice day, and she had a certain park bench in front of a fountain in mind where they could sit and enjoy the scenery.

_Susan Go_, she thought. Kind of a strange last name – she wondered if Go City had been named after them, somehow. Maybe there was some kind of contract Team Go had with the city. It was something she was sure she'd be learning from Shego on their future dates – and Kim was definitely looking forward to those. As for Susan, it was a nice name. A surprisingly normal name for a woman like Shego, but Kim kind of liked that.

She wondered if Shego would be annoyed if she called her Susan from now on. There was so much about the woman that she yet to learn, but now that they were starting from honesty, they'd have the time. Kim grabbed the arm of Shego's dress and pulled her closer, leaning up just a little bit to give her a kiss on her lips. Once they parted, Shego smiled. It wasn't a guarded smile. There was no lingering smirk – just surprise. And happiness.

Susan was definitely a start.

XX

**THE END**

* * *

_**Notes** - Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this story. Obviously there was a lot more going on than just Kim / Shego romance, but I definitely wanted to end the story with some resolution to their relationship - instead of trying to change each other, they are starting off on the right foot. Of course there are some threads left hanging; technically, this began as half of a much larger story, which I decided to break into two parts, this being the first part. _

_However, I don't think I'll be writing a sequel for various reasons, the biggest one being that I doubt I will be writing any more KP fan fiction in the future. I haven't actually watched the show in a while, I've been feeling like I've explored the universe enough, and I want to take an IRL break before branching out into other shows more. Even if I ever did write more KP fan fiction, I don't usually go for sequels unless I'm anticipating tons of reviews- otherwise I seem to lean towards starting with new plots and ideas each time._

_Since I don't think a followup to this will ever happen, I'll go ahead and spoil things. People were wondering what GJ did to Kim: while I don't have exact details in mind, my basic idea was that GJ had gotten ahold of her when she was a baby or toddler and altered her to give her the amazing fighting skills she has, as a sort of experimental supersoldier. I always thought she seemed ridiculously powerful on the show, even assuming she's taken martial arts classes. I thought it would be interesting to explore the idea that without GJ's interference, she would just be an average girl, incapable of fighting supervillains the way she does, and have that be a threat to her identity which she would struggle with until she realizes it's her actions and principles that make her who she is, not the fact that she can pummel a lot of goons._

_Also, in terms of the identity of the head of the Board of Secret Shareholders, Joe guessed it right - I was thinking it would be Martin Smarty. GJ was going to go crazy in the sequel and run things as a police state in an attempt to deal with an incoming Lorwardian invasion, I was thinking Dr. Director might die and be replaced by her synthodrone who turned out to be alive, Kim and co. would be forced to fight with their former foes to overcome GJ, then the Lorwardians would arrive, Martin Smarty would want synthodrones for slave labor or perhaps cut some kind of deal with the Lorwardians because he's a businessman who loves new customers, and so on and so forth. _

_I had the basic plot arc in mind, although I sort of sped up some things and incorporated them into this story instead, knowing I would probably never write part 2. I had ideas about Kimberly Anne killing Martin Smarty and sacrificing herself to blow up a Lorwardian mothership, for instance, but obviously I felt like her death had more meaning and impact here._

_Anyway, I've talked enough. If you enjoyed this, feel free to read my other stories - and of course I appreciate and read reviews, even on older stories. Thanks!_


End file.
